Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has weighed in on the Red Bull ‘Multi 21’ with his own perspective of team orders. Ecclestone believes team orders are appropriate in F1 at certain times but this early in the season is not one of those times as he told the Telegraph:
“At this stage of the championship, I do not believe there should be any team orders. It does not matter who it is,”
“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.
“When you are three-quarters of the way through the year, then it’s important. If there is only one guy who could get enough points to win the title, then the other guy should be helping him, for sure.”
Ecclestone didn’t just single out Red Bull, he also said that Mercedes were stupid for not letting Nico Rosberg pass slower teammate Lewis Hamilton:
“You shouldn’t have that, should you?” Ecclestone said.
“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 Bulls down a little more. That decision wasn’t sensible.”
Many F1 fans have weighed in with their opinions on the saga but several echo the sentiment that the second race of the season is a little early to be orchestrating team orders and manipulating race finishes.
On the flip side of that argument, title have been won by a single point so what a driver gains in the early races, while other team have yet to find their ultimate pace for the season, are critical One need look no further than Fernando Alonso and Ferrari in 2012 as they held a strong lead in the championship for much of the year by being effective in the first fly-away races of the season winning the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Red Bull struggled at the beginning of the year and it took the championship battle down to the last race for them to recover and win. Had Ferrari had a podium finish in the Australian Grand Prix in 2012, Alonso may very well have been world champion.
