Flavio Briatore does not think Ferrari will be heavily punished by the FIA for the Hockenheim team orders affair.

The governing body is set to consider the matter no later than September 10 at its scheduled World Motor Sport Council meeting in Como, Italy.

Ferrari breached article 39.1 of the sporting regulations by ordering that Felipe Massa give way to German grand prix winner Fernando Alonso, and was also charged by the race stewards with bringing the sport into disrepute.

Former Renault boss Briatore was banned from F1 last year by the World Motor Sport Council for the Singapore crash scandal.

He told Italy’s Sky Sport 24: “This (team order) rule makes no sense and should be abolished.  Formula one is a team sport.

“I don’t believe Ferrari did anything wrong,” added the 60-year-old Italian.

“Fernando has more points than Massa and it is logical to bet on the driver with the best chance of winning the title.

“Could it have been better handled?  It’s easy to say so with hindsight, but during a race it’s different.

“It is however clear that Massa’s engineer (Rob Smedley) should not have made certain comments.  But only one guy can win the drivers’ championship.

“It is pointless to stand around being critical.  It is the rule that is completely absurd,” added Briatore.

He does not think Ferrari needs to worry about draconian penalties like exclusion from the world championship or race bans.

“The chairman of the World Council is Jean Todt, who managed Ferrari when in 2002 in Austria he ordered Barrichello to let Schumacher overtake at the chequered flag, so I think we can all relax,” laughed Briatore.

According to a media report, Red Bull’s first race with the F-duct concept in Valencia could have contributed to Mark Webber’s huge crash.

In-car footage of the moments before the Australian struck the rear of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus show him activating the downforce-stalling device.

Unlike McLaren’s pioneering system which is triggered by the drivers’ knee, the Red Bull F-duct – debuted in qualifying and the race in Valencia – works by Webber and Sebastian Vettel blocking a hole with the four fingers of their left hand.

The footage showed Webber’s four fingers off the steering wheel on the straight, with his thumb still loosely in the steering wheel hole.

Immediately before he struck the Lotus, Webber put his left fingers back on the wheel in a failed attempt to dodge Kovalainen.

When hand-activated F-ducts appeared on the Sauber and Ferrari cars last month, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said “drivers driving with fingertips and no hands … is a safety issue”.

But Italy’s Autosprint reports that Red Bull’s hand-operated F-duct could have been a factor in Webber’s crash last weekend.

Vettel admitted in Valencia that he was not a fan of the hand-operated system.

“It was a very smart idea, it’s a big benefit if you manage to set it up right but obviously you don’t have your hands on the steering wheel all the time.

“I was managing to drink, I used the right hand side to press a button on the left.  It also depends on how many adjustments you make per lap, brake balance and so on.

“You get used to it but it’s not the most comfortable thing,” said the German.

(GMM)