Ecclestone Criticises Team Order Use

Formula 1 Boss Bernie Ecclestone has criticised both Red Bull and Mercedes for their use of team orders during the Malaysian Grand Prix.

(c) Sky Sports F1

Rosberg and Vettel were given orders to stay behind their leading team-mates during the controversial race. The former obeyed orders from Ross Brawn whilst the latter chose to ignore demands from Christian Horner.

Ecclestone slammed Red Bull for using team orders so early in the season. He told the Daily Telegraph “At this stage of the championship, I do not believe there should be any team orders, it does not matter who it is.”

He also spoke about the future prospects for the pairing, saying that should Vettel be in title contention Webber will be far from happy to help him out. “Let’s assume that these two guys are in a position to win the championship at the end of the year, then there is no way that Mark is going to help Sebastian. So Sebastian has to think about that. Maybe there will be a stage when he would like Mark to help him, but I don’t think mark is going to come up front and do it.”

He added “Imagine a situation where Sebastian was fighting Alonso for the championship, and those points made a different. If I was running the team I would say to Mark, ‘Look, this is the position. You can’t win the championship but Sebastian can, and it would be nice for the team if we had a world champion again’. But the problem is that conversation wouldn’t go down too well with Mark. He would say, ‘Well, remember what happened’.”

Mercedes were in a similar situation with their two drivers, with Hamilton leading Rosberg in third and fourth. The Brit was struggling due to low fuel and was in strict conservation mode. Despite calls to the team from Rosberg asking to overtake he was given the order to stay behind and he did so.

Hamilton and Rosberg were both agitated by the incident but took the orders and moved on, making up without causing a rift in the team. Ecclestone felt the Brackley based squad should not have used team orders as well.

He said “You shouldn’t do that, should you? It’s no good. The team principals know what is right and wrong. I was disappointed that Mercedes didn’t let Rosberg go past. I thought that was a stupid decision. I think Rosberg could have chased the two Red Bull’s down a little more. That decision wasn’t sensible.”

The situation at Mercedes is better in comparison to the strong divide and upset in the Red Bull team, but with a size able gap between the next race in China they have plenty of time to resolve the intra-team issues.