Rubens Barrichello has alleged that Ferrari made a threat that might have ended his motor racing career during the infamous 2002 Austrian grand prix.

Ten years ago, the Brazilian led the race at the A1-Ring but eventually, at the very last corner, succumbed to team orders that allowed number one teammate Michael Schumacher to pass him.

Subsequent video footage has depicted then Ferrari team boss Jean Todt asking Barrichello on the radio to simply “let Michael pass for the championship, please”.

But Barrichello, having left F1 at the end of 2011 for a seat in Indycar, says it was not quite as simple as that.

“It was eight laps of war,” he is quoted by Brazil’s Globo.

“It’s very rare that I lose my temper, but I was screaming on the radio. I kept going right to the end, saying I would not let him pass.

“That’s when they said something about something much broader. It was not about the contract.

“I cannot tell you what they said, but it was a form of threat that made me think about re-thinking my life, because the great joy for me was driving,” said the 39-year-old.

Dietrich Mateschitz has ruled out relocating his pacesetting formula one team Red Bull Racing to Austria.
The energy drinks mogul and Austrian billionaire reopened the former A1-Ring, rechristened as the Red Bull Ring, at the weekend.

F1′s most famous figure Bernie Ecclestone was even present, kindling rumours he might seriously be considering reviving the Austrian grand prix.

“This track is ready for formula one,” Mark Webber told Kleine Zeitung newspaper after a few hot laps, and Sebastian Vettel agreed that a grand prix could be held now at the Red Bull Ring “theoretically and practically”.

But Mateschitz insisted: “We will not get a formula one or a MotoGP race here.”

More realistic, perhaps, is that Red Bull Racing is relocated from Milton Keynes (UK) to the facility.

“I’ve thought about it, but no,” Mateschitz answered. “You can build whatever you want, but in Styria you cannot get 300 of the best people in formula one.”

FIA official Charlie Whiting has inspected the reconstructed A1-Ring and approved it for events up to formula one standard.

That is the news of the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, reporting that the former venue of the Austrian grand prix has been renamed ‘Red Bull Ring’.

The track in Zeltweg was demolished after its final F1 race in 2003 and was recently rebuilt by Dietrich Mateschitz’s energy drinks company.

It is set to be reopened in mid 2011 and is slated to host a range of motor racing categories including DTM, F3 and Formula 2.

“Red Bull’s world championships are the best advertisement for the race track in Spielberg,” said the Kleine Zeitung report.

A major hurdle for the Red Bull Ring, however, is the circuit’s noise quota, with an F1 race meaning few other events could be held to make the venue profitable.

The Schumacher brothers are adamant Red Bull must now impose team orders if it wants to win the 2010 drivers’ world championship.

Their young countryman Sebastian Vettel looked set to take the points lead from his Australian teammate Mark Webber, who crashed on the slippery Yeongam circuit, after controlling Sunday’s Korean grand prix from pole position.

But Vettel also retired from the race with an engine failure, leaving him 14 points shy of Webber, who is now 11 points behind new championship leader Fernando Alonso.

With just two races to go, Ralf Schumacher thinks Red Bull’s new strategy should be obvious.

“Now Red Bull need to play a single card; Mark Webber,” the former grand prix winner, in Korea to commentate for German television, is quoted by Bild newspaper.

“Sebastian needs to get as many points as he can, but Red Bull must see to it that Webber gets the title,” Schumacher added.

Reluctantly, because it will be to the detriment of his friend Vettel, seven time world champion Michael Schumacher also said a team strategy must now be taken by Red Bull for the remaining Brazilian and Abu Dhabi grands prix.

“I’m sorry for Sebastian,” he told German television Sky. “I have to recall almost a decade ago, when everyone thought we at Ferrari were crazy to be thinking about the championship so early.

“But if Red Bull had done the same, their worry lines would be much smaller now,” added the German.

His reference to “almost a decade ago” must surely be about 2002, when Ferrari was roundly condemned for moving Rubens Barrichello aside so that Schumacher could take maximum points from the Austrian grand prix.

Ferrari implemented a similarly controversial strategy at Hockenheim earlier this year, and on Sunday Fernando Alonso moved to the head of the drivers’ title standings.

But Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was quoted on Sunday as saying he will not be making Webber the number 1 driver for the rest of 2010.

But he also told reporters at Yeongam: “I haven’t had time to look at all the mathematics and scenarios. It’s something that obviously we will look at pretty closely between now and Brazil.”

Vettel, however, made clear he is not personally ready to give up, even though his engine failure seriously dented his charge in Korea.

“It is very significant for the championship situation, but I am the last to give up,” German media quote him as saying.

Jean Todt has hinted that F1′s team orders ban will be reconsidered in order to make the sport more “transparent”.

But the FIA president denied he is bowing to the pressure and ideals of Ferrari, the famous Italian team he led to enormous success last decade.

Maranello based Ferrari recently and controversially escaped additional penalties for switching the places of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso at Hockenheim.

Instead, the World Motor Sport Council ruled that the ban on team orders, installed after Todt ordered Rubens Barrichello to let Michael Schumacher win the 2002 Austrian grand prix, be reconsidered.

“I’m not for or against team orders; it depends on the situation,” Todt told the Clarin daily whilst visiting Argentina.

“It’s as old as racing,” the Frenchman insisted. “After what happened with Alonso and Massa in Germany, the issue was reopened and passed to a committee to make the rules clear.

“The idea is to find out what is most healthy and transparent,” said Todt.

He denied that the FIA’s apparently new approach to team orders demonstrates a link between his new presidency and Ferrari.

Asked what his response to those types of critics is, Todt answered: “They are fools.

“It is the same as when I was with Peugeot, and also Ferrari. Now as president of the FIA, I do my best for the organisation, regardless of the particular interests of others,” he explained.

Rubens Barrichello has confirmed he is close to extending his tenure at Williams.
The Brazilian veteran made the admission whilst contemplating the Hockenheim team orders furore, comparing it to his famous move to let Michael Schumacher win the 2002 Austrian grand prix.

“Many understand now how it was (at Ferrari) in 2002,” he is quoted in Spanish and Portuguese language reports.

“They understand why I left Ferrari a year before the end of a contract,” added the 38-year-old Brazilian.

Barrichello drove for Ferrari between 2000 and 2005, but claims he is much happier now.

“I may not have been champion in that time, but I was always fair, and now it is past,” he said.

“Now I’m at the team I want to be with and am about to extend my contract for another year. I want to be champion with Williams,” said Barrichello.

Bernie Ecclestone thinks formula one should overturn its 2002 ban on team orders.

As the sporting world debates Ferrari’s order for Felipe Massa to hand Hockenheim victory to Fernando Alonso, there are those who believe teams should be free to run their businesses on track.

“I must confess I would agree with anyone who thinks that,” said the F1 chief executive.

Article 39.1 of the sporting regulations, added after Rubens Barrichello was crassly ordered to let Michael Schumacher win the 2002 Austrian grand prix, states that “team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited.”

The Hockenheim stewards fined Ferrari the maximum $100,000 and directed the matter to the World Motor Sport Council.

Ecclestone is a member of the FIA body, but is not sure the overturning of the ban will be on the agenda.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to see,” said the Briton.  “It’s something that needs to be discussed.”

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo this week said team orders date back to Tazio Nuvolari’s days in the 30s and 40s, and Ecclestone agrees that the practice is part of the sport.

“I believe what people do when they are inside the team and how they run their team is up to them.  Of course, if a team does something that’s dangerous then they’re going to be in trouble.  Otherwise, get on with it,” he said.

Sunday’s German grand prix began amid a burgeoning flexible wing saga, and ended with a new scandal about team orders.

After a team one-two, and soaked in champagne, Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali was hounded in the Hockenheim pitlane by reporters accusing him of illegally ordering Felipe Massa to hand his victory to Fernando Alonso.

“This is not true,” Italian Domenicali told an angry Eddie Jordan on British television BBC.

Red Bull’s Christian Horner, earlier accused by his rivals of running an illegally-flexing front wing on the RB6 in Germany, said the FIA stewards should actually be probing Ferrari’s alleged rules breach.

“That was the clearest team order I’ve ever seen. As clear as 2002,” said the Briton, referring to the Austrian grand prix of that year, when then Ferrari team boss Jean Todt ordered Rubens Barrichello aside for Michael Schumacher.

Fascinatingly, Todt is now president of the governing FIA.

“The difference with 2002 was that there was no rule (about team orders) then,” said Jordan. “This is ten times worse.”

The alleged team order at Hockenheim began with Alonso pleading on the radio that sitting behind Massa was “ridiculous”.

Shortly afterwards, Massa’s engineer Rob Smedley told Massa on the radio: “Ok, so, ‘Fernando is faster than you’. Can you confirm you understand that message?”

Massa, 29, then deliberately slowed down on a straight and let Alonso pass.

But Domenicali denied Ferrari is therefore guilty of implementing team orders.

“To be honest, I don’t think so,” he said when asked if he thought the stewards would be looking into the incident.

Asked if he thought he deserved to win on Sunday, which is the one-year anniversary of his horror qualifying accident in Hungary last season, Massa answered: “Well, I think so.”

As for whether he deliberately moved aside, the Brazilian said: “Well, I don’t think I need to say anything about that. He passed me.”

So obvious was the team order, Smedley actually apologised – “good lad, sorry” – to Massa after the race.

“The apology is just that I’m sorry it happened, I’m sorry he (Alonso) came through,” Smedley, who also called Massa “very, very, very magnanimous” on the radio, explained to the BBC.

Alonso, despite asking on the slowing-down lap if Massa was ok, also denied he had been deliberately let through.

“I don’t know what happened; I saw Felipe a little bit slow and I took the opportunity,” said the Spaniard.

Massa added: “We work for the team, that’s the only thing I feel.”

Schumacher said he is still very close to his former Ferrari teammate Massa, but admitted he would have done “exactly the same” if he had been sitting on the pitwall on Sunday.

“In principle I fully accept it (team orders). There is only one target: winning the title,” said the seven time world champion.

In the championship, the McLaren drivers retain their lead over the now points-tied Red Bulls, ahead of Hockenheim winner Fernando Alonso.

F1 should take a new approach to team orders, Christian Horner has told a German news magazine.

Just last month, Red Bull’s team boss backed the FIA’s current ban by insisting that “team orders are wrong”.

The Briton has now told Focus: “It is a regime that should definitely be discussed again and clarified.”

After 2002, the FIA banned team orders due to the furore sparked by Rubens Barrichello reluctantly moving aside to allow his Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher to win the Austrian grand prix.

In more recent weeks, Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel collided from the lead in Turkey, before the team was embroiled in a controversy surrounding the transfer of a new wing from Webber’s car to Vettel’s.

Horner insists that Webber and Vettel are treated equally, but admitted that 23-year-old Vettel is obviously a longer-term prospect.

“Mark only has two, or at the most three years still in him, but in Sebastian there are ten, eleven, twelve.

“So when you talk about the future, then it is obviously Sebastian who – hopefully – will spend many years with the team,” he said.