03/04/2013
FEATURE BY MARC PRIESTLY
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Whatever anyone thinks of the whole team orders debate, rearing its head again following the Malaysian GP, no one can surely deny the reprehensible nature of Sebastian Vettel's actions in ignoring them.
I've read many articles with a variety of points of view. Some point to the inevitable distrust now bestowed between the World Champion and his team mate. Some say team boss, Christian Horner was too weak from his position on the pitwall, others suggest that Seb was right to do what he did, as it's that ruthlessness which wins World Championships. I've read pieces suggesting that the team should ban its championship leading driver for a race as punishment or that Mark Webber may never race for the team again.
Basically, every possible view, scenario and opinion has been written about, I've agreed with some, vehemently disagreed with others, but one thing's for certain, people haven't been talking about F1 this much for some time.
As I watched events play out during the race, fascinated along with everyone else, I couldn't help being reminded of a similar situation I'd been involved with myself.
During my time working for McLaren, team orders and driver disagreements played roles of varying importance and significance over the years, but none more so than that fateful year in 2007.
McLaren have always very publicly stated that its drivers are never given a number one or number two status. It's a commendable stance, one which the general public understands and often appreciates and one which under most circumstances doesn't cause many issues.
Normally, over the time of any driver pairing, a perceived leader emerges. Based naturally around results, one of the two will become more successful than the other, but at McLaren, as I'm sure is the case with most teams, they would always get the same opportunities.
When it comes to deciding race strategy on the Saturday night after qualifying, the data normally suggests an optimum lap on which to make your first pitstop (plan A), the way McLaren decided who got to make that decision was, whoever's ahead in the World Championship gets first call. Mika and DC, for example, would always begin by trading wins and podiums, but before long, one would break away and eventually be deemed as the team's best opportunity to win. Only when it became no longer possible for the second placed driver to challenge for the title, would the idea of helping a team mate to victory ever really be considered.
Of course the team orders in Sepang were not issued to help one driver over the other, they were purely and simply put in place to ensure that the team came home with maximum points.
It's only on the very few occasions where a natural leader doesn't emerge, where both drivers trade the wins and podiums throughout the season, that the issues ever arise with the 'equals' policy.
In 2007 at McLaren, much as it had with Prost and Senna at the end of the eighties, the team found itself in just that kind of situation.
World Champion Fernando Alonso moved to our Woking based team and, although there was never any mention of number one status, he, along with everyone else, assumed he'd lead the way and show new boy Lewis Hamilton the ropes in his first season of F1.
Inside the team, it was the same. As mechanics, waiting pre-season to find out which car crew would work with which driver it was no secret that everyone hoped to be on Alonso's side of the garage.
As we began the season, both drivers did well, but it was Fernando, as expected, who got the first win.
In the following couple of events, Lewis grew in confidence and pushed the Spaniard hard, until the first real sign of tension appeared at the Monaco Grand Prix, race five.
With Fernando on pole and Lewis second, the pair dominated the race and pulled out a substantial lead over the field.
Towards the last part of the Grand Prix, Lewis, closing on his team mate, sensed a chance at stealing his first race win and pushed like mad to get past.
The team, much in the way Red Bull did in Malaysia, issued clear instructions for both drivers to 'hold station', turn down their engines and bring the two cars home for maximum points. "Yellow G6" was the instruction to turn the yellow engine map dials on the steering wheel down to position 6 and give the Mercedes V8's an easy time to the end of the race.
Fernando, out in front, did just that, whereas Lewis refused to change his settings. He, like Sebastian, wanted the points, knew he was faster at that point in the afternoon and wanted to show the world. He was young, inexperienced and hot headed, and being new to F1, hadn't ever before had to deal with a team's interests in a championship, not just his own.
The calls of "Yellow G6" continued and radio traffic between team and drivers became heated. Fernando, much as Mark Webber would have been, didn't understand why Lewis was still pushing him hard, when he was cruising home under control. Lewis didn't want to play the team game and wanted to show everyone just how fast he could be.
In the end, with both drivers screaming and shouting down the radio channels, Ron stepped in. He rarely spoke directly to a driver during a race, leaving it to the race engineers, so I guess if he appeared in your ear pieces you knew he was serious.
Unlike Christian Horner on Sunday, Ron let Lewis know, in no uncertain terms, what he had to do and very quickly yellow G6 was selected and Lewis backed off reluctantly to take second place.
The incident not only raised tensions between the two drivers, but highlighted a side of Lewis which wasn't too popular amongst certain members of the team.
Lewis, with his new found confidence, went on to win races and announce himself as a firm title contender. Fernando was undoubtedly unsettled by this and with the two shaping up as main rivals, over and above team mates, a divide began to emerge inside the McLaren garage.
The two halves of any race team will always gravitate towards their own drivers, but with the rivalry becoming fierce between the two, tensions inside the team rose as well.
At the Hungarian Grand Prix, another incident between the battling 'team mates' became the catalyst for the most uncomfortable season of motorsport I've ever been involved in.
With a strategic agreement in the team that Alonso would head out into Q3 first so as to pit first for new tyres, Hamilton duly ignored the instruction and led the way onto the circuit for the session. With a crucial 'fuel burning' phase of the session being a resultant feature of the qualifying format of the time, the move put Fernando out of pitstop sequence of his pre-planned program.
Towards the end of Q3, at the final round of pit stops for new tyres and building up to the best opportunity for a shot at pole when the cars were at their lightest, the feud between the drivers finally boiled over.
Fernando, still fuming after Lewis' earlier antics, came in for his stop, but when eventually waved away by the team, seeing his team mate queuing behind in his mirrors, very blatantly delayed his own departure by around ten seconds or so, in order to hold up Lewis enough that he wouldn't make it round for his final and crucial timed lap.
Despite us completing a rapid stop and an out lap on the ragged edge, Fernando crossed the line with two seconds to spare before the flag, whereas Lewis missed out by five frustrating seconds. Alonso went on to set the pole position lap time.
That day, combined with the very obvious and continuous hatred between the two drivers, began a period of real discomfort within the team. The two sides of our own garage bonded themselves around their own nuclei, their drivers, but separated themselves dramatically from each other.
The split down the centre became a gulf and it undoubtedly affected the remainder of our season. Engineers refused to go out of their way to help each other, mechanics of one car became openly frosty towards the driver of the other and the two drivers themselves could be seen playing ridiculous PR games for the cameras while we all watched the smiles disappear instantly as they returned to the garage.
The McLaren garage became a very uncomfortable place to work that year and the infighting between the two sides, without doubt, cost us a World Title.
A perfect example of the rare occasion that team mate equality causes more problems than it solves.
I'm not suggesting for one minute that the same situation is arising right now at Red Bull Racing, but what's clear to me is that if Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel don't at least act like they're over the situation in front of their team the tensions will spill down the pyramid. Mechanics and engineers will defend their driver no matter what he's done, they're right behind him to the end, so the way the team management handles the issue internally could play a big part in the way the whole team reacts over the coming rounds.
Marc Priestley
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