F1 Drivers Who Vetoed Team Orders
Five Who Disregarded Order from Team in Favor of Personal Decision
Didier Pironi, Rene Arnoux, Carlos Reutemann and Manfred von Brauchitsch disobeyed an order from the team during a race, while Lewis Hamilton did so in qualifying.
What do the following drivers have in common? It definitely isn’t praiseworthy.
They are Lewis Hamilton, Didier Pironi, Rene Arnoux, Carlos Reutemann and Manfred von Brauchitsch, a grand prix driver during the 1930s. Here’s a hint. Hamilton, the rookie with McLaren who leads the F1 driver standings after 11 of 17 races, is the newest member of the group.
Three, two, one. Time’s up.
All of these drivers disobeyed an order from the team.
The group likely isn’t comprehensive because there had to be instances of Grand Prix (before 1950) and F1 (1950-on) drivers disobeying an order from the team that were not made public. It’s understandable why a team would want to keep private its dirty laundry.
Nevertheless, the dirty laundry involving these five drivers is in the public domain. All, for whatever reason, decided to disobey an order from the team and put individual interests first.
Pironi, Arnoux, Reutemann and von Brauchitsch all disobeyed “team orders” during a race. For more information, please see the Suite101 article, "Pironi, Arnoux Ignored Team Orders" and the Suite101 article, "Reutemann, von Brauchitsch Disobeyed."
Hamilton stands alone in this group since he disobeyed an order from the team in qualifying -- nearly five years after “team orders” in a race had been outlawed.
For close to a century, Grand Prix and then F1 teams could legally issue “team orders” to a driver to allow his teammate to pass.
In October 2002, team orders were outlawed. The ban stemmed from Rubens Barrichello obeying the order from Ferrari to gift the win in the Austrian Grand Prix earlier that season to team leader Michael Schumacher, who was in a better position in the driver standings. Schumacher went on to win his third straight driver championship for Ferrari and fifth overall.
However, to many F1 fans, including the author, team orders in a race made perfect sense. The thinking was as follows:
F1 is a team sport. Each team employs two drivers who compete against each other in the driver championship and with each other in the constructor championship. The driver championship is one of two championships the team strives to win. And if a team wants one driver to finish ahead of the other to maximize the former’s position in the driver championship, that is the team’s right.
The crux of the “con” argument was that team orders artificially influenced the outcome of the race. Remember that an investigation by the FIA, the worldwide governing body of motorsport, judged McLaren’s actions at the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix to be acceptable and to not constitute team orders.
The following is from the FIA press release issued upon completion of the investigation: “It is standard procedure for a team to tell its drivers to slow down when they have a substantial lead. This is in order to minimize the risk of technical or other problems. It is also standard practice and entirely reasonable to ask the drivers not to put each other at risk.”
The McLaren teammates -- Fernando Alonso and Hamilton -- held station late in the race and finished 1-2. Hamilton complained about not being allowed to compete for the victory.
In the article “Mercedes McLaren at Mid-Season,” posted on Suite101 on July 16, it was suggested that friction existed between Alonso and Hamilton. The relationship between the two is now in shambles following the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton started a chain of events by disobeying an order from McLaren during the third and final segment of qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. For more information, please see the Suite101 article titled, "Hamilton Nixed Order in F1 Qualy 3."
One penalty levied by the stewards was the demotion of Alonso, who was ruled to have deprived Hamilton of a last hot lap in qualifying by blocking him in the pits, from pole to sixth place on the starting grid. The other was the loss of any constructor points scored by Hamilton and Alonso in the race.
Hamilton, who was elevated from second place on the grid to pole, won the race and widened his lead over Alonso in the driver standings to seven points, 80-73. Alonso finished the race in fourth place.
McLaren was prohibited by rule from appealing the decision to demote Alonso on the starting grid. But the team had the option to appeal the loss of the 15 constructor points and has decided to do so.
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