Team Orders - Red Bull take the Moral High Ground

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Not my cup of cake
Valued Member
After Vettel's win in Brazil, Red Bull, as we are probably all aware, are still refusing to say they will ask one driver to cede a place to the other to take the Drivers Title. This has been further reinforced an Autosport article where Dietrich Mateschitz states:

"To interfere with the drivers was never a possibility for us," said Mateschitz. "The whole world condemned Ferrari after what they did in Hockenheim, but we have turned out as idiots because we did not act in this way."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88087

So what are Red Bull trying to achieve? They have won the Constructors Championship which to the team ownership may have been the main priority. To the fans though the Drivers Title is the more glamorous bit and Red Bull look very likely to let this slip through their grasp.

Should Fernando Alsonso win the title by less than 7 points this weekend Red Bull may well be able to look down their noses and sneer at both Ferrari and the Spaniard and claim they didn't break the rules, at least with regard to team orders. How much consolation will this be to Vettel and Webber after Abu Dhabi, knowing their team "did the right thing"?

I don't remember Maradona being too upset when handed the World Cup in 1986 and the record books show that Argentina were World Champions. I don't remember Michael Schumacher being too upset when Damon Hill retired in Australia in 1994 or Ayrton Senna in 1990 after deliberately running Alain Prost off the road. I can't imagine Fernando Alonso, at the glitzy award ceremony in Monaco later this year, calling Mark Webber to the floor and handing him the drivers trophy as "he (Alonso) really didn't deserve it"

Should Red Bull fail to take advantage of their superior performance and not win the drivers title history will show them, in my opinon, to have been poorly managed and, worst of all, losers. Two wrongs don't make a right but if Red Bull don't play by the same rules as Ferrari they have got it wrong.
 
the team is adamant they will not influence the decision, this doesn't stop the drivers from making their own decision - and that is not team orders...

I think RB have played this quite well.

if Vettel does move over to let Mark win and get the WC, it'll be a Vettel decision not a RB one, thereby clearing RB of any wrong doing and they get the result they want/need
 
FungusDBogeyman said:
the team is adamant they will not influence the decision, this doesn't stop the drivers from making their own decision - and that is not team orders...

I think RB have played this quite well.

if Vettel does move over to let Mark win and get the WC, it'll be a Vettel decision not a RB one, thereby clearing RB of any wrong doing and they get the result they want/need

Spot on Fungus, remember what Ferrari's defence was!
 
How can they take the moral high ground after giving one of their drivers a part that was already bolted onto the other drivers car earlier in the year? I think after Silverstone, all this talk of fairness between their drivers is nothing but hot air and a cynical attempt at PR..
 
RickD said:
How can they take the moral high ground after giving one of their drivers a part that was already bolted onto the other drivers car earlier in the year? I think after Silverstone, all this talk of fairness between their drivers is nothing but hot air and a cynical attempt at PR..

Right on the errr, button. It's their smokescreen for when any co-ordinated change does happen.
 
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