“All teams” either openly or secretly support the deployment of team orders, Peter Sauber said at Monza on Friday.

But when it came to supporting Ferrari at the FIA’s disciplinary hearing earlier this week, only the Swiss and fellow veteran Sir Frank Williams would write an actual letter.

“All the teams are for team orders when they make sense, but no one admits it openly!” Sauber is quoted at Monza by the Blick newspaper.

But while some observers made the link between Sauber’s support and the identity of his team’s engine supplier, more confusing was Williams’ similar backing.

The Oxfordshire based team is not known to have any alliances with its famous Italian rivals.

“We are no friends of Ferrari,” Williams confirmed on Friday, “but we just thought a total ban on team orders is not necessary.

“We wrote it (the letter) because we are sincere,” he added.

With the FIA going easy on Ferrari’s use of team orders at Hockenheim, Christian Horner is not ruling out employing similar tactics at Red Bull.

The Italian team was fined $100,000 and ordered to pay the FIA’s court costs for the disciplinary hearing last Wednesday, but otherwise escaped penalty for illegally moving Fernando Alonso ahead of Felipe Massa in the German race.

Given the ultra-competitiveness of F1 at present, rival teams might now need to exploit the same loophole, Horner suggested at Monza.

“I think everyone in formula one, certainly the top three teams, will have to consider it.

“I wish we had known before Istanbul!” he remarked, referring to the race in which Sebastian Vettel collided with his teammate Mark Webber whilst they jousted for the lead.

The FIA aside, Ferrari has been heavily criticised for its Hockenheim actions, but Horner said the world championship is paramount.

“Ferrari said they would look idiots if they lost the title by five points,” he said.

“But if we end up losing the title by five points, after allowing Mark and Sebastian to race, then we are going to look like idiots,” added the Briton.

Rival McLaren, however, is not intending a change of strategy as a result of the Ferrari ruling.

“It has no impact on anything I’m going to do this weekend,” said team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone is desperate to formally rid his sport of the ban.

“It’s totally crazy,” he told the German newsmagazine Focus.

“What’s a team order? Something that took place half an hour before the race? What about a month before? It’s completely nonsense.

“In my eyes it’s team strategy, which should be allowed. I will recommend to the FIA to withdraw this rule,” added the 79-year-old.

In a similar way, Ecclestone said the FIA should also not be interfering in how F1 teams run their companies in other areas — such as the number of staff.

“It’s up to them to run their teams. And believe me, if they want to employ more people, they’ll find a way,” he said.

Ferrari escaped penalty in Wednesday’s team orders disciplinary hearing because there was not enough proof, FIA president Jean Todt has confirmed.

Former Ferrari boss Todt, whose team order at the A1-Ring in 2002 famously triggered the imposition of the ban, admitted he suspects a similar order was in effect when Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso swapped places at Hockenheim.

“I tend to agree as well,” said the Frenchman when told that many people believe July’s events constituted a rules breach.

“Before you say you are guilty, you need to be able to prove that you are guilty,” said Todt in a video interview with the BBC.

He said the Maranello based team “denied” Massa had slowed down to let Alonso past as the result of a team order.

But, away from the FIA’s headquarters at Place de la Concorde, Ferrari would clearly like to see the team orders rule repealed.

The governing body has vowed to reconsider the regulation, and team boss Stefano Domenicali agreed: “This is an important step towards transparency.”

Whilst many commentators and fans are angry at the outcome of Wednesday’s disciplinary hearing, others say the time is right to axe the ban on team orders.

The Telegraph observed that if the sport’s governing body is reluctant to harshly punish a “blatant” rules breach like Ferrari’s at Hockenheim, then “the rule really does need reviewing”.

“By removing it, at least the hypocrisy of teams who practise it yet preach something else entirely would be removed,” added the broadsheet.

The Guardian agrees that “most teams” pay only “lip service” to the ban that is “largely unworkable”.

It is rumoured that the FIA considered imposing a 5 second time penalty to winner Fernando Alonso, which would have installed the subordinate Felipe Massa as the official winner.

But the Council decided against it, meaning this verdict “is a precedent that will likely allow team orders to be continued to be used in the sport”, a New York Times blogger wrote.

Brazilian columnist Livio Oricchio said the next step should be the axing of the ban, so “there is less theatre and more truth in formula one”.

Germany’s Bild agreed: “Either team orders are punished brutally, or they are officially allowed once again.”

Said F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone: “The rules need to be looked at again.

“If you swapped your drivers around with a few laps left, that is bringing the sport into disrepute.  But if you do it earlier, I don’t have a problem with team orders.”

Enrico Gelpi, president of the Italian sanctioning body ACI and a FIA member, said: “The rule will be reviewed.

“For us it would be a good idea to remove it completely.  The general attitude in the FIA towards this change is favourable.”

He said the topic would be discussed at the next World Motor Sport Council meeting in November.

The FIA would not be “wise” to severely punish Ferrari at Wednesday’s disciplinary hearing.

That is the opinion of 1996 world champion Damon Hill, who at Spa in 1998 won the Belgian grand prix after then team boss Eddie Jordan ordered teammate Ralf Schumacher to hold station.

But that was before F1′s governing body banned team orders in 2002, after Ferrari so crudely ordered Rubens Barrichello to give up a deserved win to Michael Schumacher in Austria.

The Italian team imposed a similar order at Hockenheim in July, in the form of Rob Smedley’s radio message to Felipe Massa that “Fernando is faster than you”.

According to Britain’s Daily Express, Ferrari has “spent a lot of time” since Hockenheim quietly explaining that its behaviour was not unusual.

The newspaper said McLaren sent a coded message to Lewis Hamilton in one race, informing the British driver that the “cat was out of the house” before he drove past compliant former teammate Heikki Kovalainen.

“Every team in the pitlane gives team orders,” David Coulthard is quoted by the Wall Street Journal.  “Anyone who says they don’t is lying.”

It’s for that reason that Hill, speaking to the Telegraph, thinks the World Motor Sport Council should go easy on Ferrari.

“(The FIA) flexing their muscles because they can is not necessarily wise,” he said, when considering a severe sporting sanction as the potential outcome of the hearing.

“I don’t think a punishment that big would fit this particular crime,” added Hill.

Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport is hoping not only that Ferrari escapes Wednesday intact, but that the team order regulation is looked at in order to spare teams from having to sidestep it.

“Perhaps there can be a clarification which overcomes this hypocrisy, so that team orders are allowed as long as they don’t harm other competitors,” said the sports daily.

Ferrari race drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will address Wednesday’s FIA disciplinary hearing by video link.

It emerged last week that the pair, accused of obeying illegal team orders by swapping places at Hockenheim in July, had been summoned to the World Motor Sport Council session in Paris.

Reports indicated that the pair may appear in person or by video, probably from a location within Italy.

An article in the British newspaper Daily Telegraph, confirmed by the Maranello based team, said Alonso and Massa will be available to the FIA by video.

After Wednesday’s hearing, it is expected the verdict will be published later that day.

Team boss Domenicali and team manager Massimo Rivola, alongside the obligatory lawyers, are slated to be in attendance at the Place de la Concorde.

Alonso’s world championship chances are riding on the outcome, given his already 41 point deficit to leader Lewis Hamilton.

Should his Hockenheim points be deducted as a further penalty by the World Council, the Spaniard’s deficit – with six races left to run – would blow out to 70 points, because other championship contenders also stand to benefit.

Giorgio Beghella Bartoli, director of the Italian grand prix venue Monza, thinks Ferrari should escape sanction.

“As for the (team orders) regulation, an instruction (at Hockenheim) was not there,” he is quoted in Italian reports.

“Because an engineer (Rob Smedley) said ‘sorry’?  What kind of proof is that?” he insisted.

Livio Oricchio, an authoritative Brazilian journalist, went a step further, urging the FIA to scrap the team orders ban altogether.

“There is no way to control them.  Ending the ban respects the truth, therefore the fan.  And, as paradoxically as it may seem, the sport.

“On some occasions, the outcome of a race has been decided within a team and few people knew about it,” he wrote in his column in the Jornal da Tarde.

Ferrari’s race drivers have been summoned by the FIA to the forthcoming disciplinary hearing of the World Motor Sport Council.

That is the claim of the Spanish sports daily AS, which on Friday said both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa must appear either in person in Paris or via video link.

The pair swapped positions during July’s German grand prix at Hockenheim, allegedly due to the imposition of an illegal team order.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said before leaving Spa-Francorchamps last weekend that he was “sure the World Council will understand our point” on September 8.

But some, including Red Bull’s Helmut Marko, are hoping the outcome will be a points loss for the Italian team and its drivers.

“No, I don’t think so, we’re relaxed,” said Alonso last Sunday.

After Wednesday’s hearing, it is expected the verdict will be published later that day.

As well as the drivers and legal team, boss Domenicali and team manager Massimo Rivola are also slated to be in attendance at Place de la Concorde.

Niki Lauda has denied making scathing comments about Ferrari’s likely punishment at the forthcoming World Motor Sport Council disciplinary hearing.

The Italian team angrily bit back at the triple world champion’s apparent prediction that it will “get a pasting” by the FIA for implementing illegal team orders at Hockenheim.

Ferrari’s website columnist had responded by suggesting the Maranello based team’s famous former driver had missed “a fine opportunity to keep his mouth shut”.

Interestingly, 61-year-old Lauda insists that he actually did keep his mouth shut, therefore insinuating that F1′s official website manufactured the interview.

“I’ve never said that stuff,” he is quoted by the Telegraph as having told the Italian press.

“On television I only said that team orders are not good for F1 and for the spectacle, and that a team like Red Bull, by leaving Webber and Vettel free to fight, is doing the right thing.

“Please write that I didn’t do any interview,” he reportedly said in the Italian report.

Ferrari confirmed that Lauda’s denial was made to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

“I am very pleased Niki has denied making these statements: it shows that fresh air is really good for you!” said the team’s website columnist, who is known as the Horse Whisperer.

As Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber pulled out a championship lead on Sunday, F1′s attention turned once again towards the spectre of “team orders”.

The pair are now 31 and 28 points respectively ahead of nearest title challenger Sebastian Vettel, causing Webber to suggest that the time may be nearing for Red Bull to back him over his young German teammate.

McLaren figures trotted out the party line about driver equality, with Hamilton insisting that he will not receive “any preferential treatment” over Jenson Button.

“I think it’s too early, but maybe there’s a different strategy compared to McLaren,” said Webber.

“It’s still too early at the moment but not far away, I would say,” added the Australian.

However, when team boss Christian Horner was asked if Vettel is now going to play second fiddle to Webber, he answered: “That would be team orders.  And those are not allowed!”

Vettel told Auto Motor und Sport: “There are still some races to go and we have seen how quickly things change.

“Monza will be hard for us and today we should at least have been on the podium, but everything is still in it.  Head up, we move on.”

Interestingly, the spectre of team orders could actually deliver Red Bull some points if the World Motor Sport Council decides to penalise the Ferrari drivers at its disciplinary hearing.

Vettel finished behind both position-swapping Ferraris at Hockenheim, moving Red Bull’s Helmut Marko to observe on Sunday to Auto Motor und Sport: “On September 8 there could be ten more points for Sebastian.”

Hockenheim winner Fernando Alonso told Spanish reporters on Sunday: “No, I don’t think so, we’re relaxed.”

It would not be adequate to only penalise Ferrari at next month’s World Motor Sport Council disciplinary hearing.

That is the opinion of Max Mosley, ahead of the September 8 meeting that was called to assess the Italian team’s allegedly illegal use of team orders during the German grand prix.

With Ferrari already handed a $100,000 fine by the Hockenheim stewards, it is suggested that a satisfactory outcome might be a further sporting sanction but one that allows drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso to keep their championship points.

Former long-time FIA president Mosley, however, disagrees, “because the drivers understood the rules when they were given their FIA super licenses but in Hockenheim (the drivers) failed to uphold them”.

“I’m sorry particularly for poor Felipe Massa,” added Mosley in an interview with Welt am Sonntag newspaper, “but there is a rule strictly against team orders.”

The 70-year-old Briton said Brazilian Massa cannot argue that he was only obeying an instruction from his team “because his employer had no right to invite him to break the rules”.

Ferrari should receive a significant sporting sanction for breaking the rules at Hockenheim, according to the controversial former president of F1′s governing body.
After the Italian team angrily slammed Niki Lauda for predicting a similar outcome at next month’s FIA disciplinary hearing, Max Mosley waded into the debate during an interview with Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Race leader Felipe Massa moved over to let Fernando Alonso win the German grand prix in July and “both cars and both drivers should lose the points they achieved”, 70-year-old Briton Mosley said.

“I will not make any recommendation, but on the facts at the moment there should have been some sporting sanction and not only a fine,” he added.

Mosley said “most teams” would like the team orders ban to be repealed, but he said the rule was designed to “meet the needs of millions of fans”.

“In the event that it (team orders) is brought into play, we have to impose a severe punishment,” he explained.

Two former F1 drivers have defended Ferrari’s right to favour Fernando Alonso for the 2010 world championship.

The Italian team faced the wrath of spectators and the media recently after moving Felipe Massa out of the way for Spaniard Alonso at Hockenheim.

Ferrari will again be defending its actions at a World Motor Sport Council disciplinary hearing next month.

But Nelson Piquet Jr believes it is up to his Brazilian countryman Massa to prove that he is the driver Ferrari should be backing.

“It’s hard for Massa that Alonso came into the team later but is faster,” Piquet, who was Alonso’s Renault teammate in 2008 and early 2009, told the Brazilian newsmagazine Istoe.

“But Ferrari will not miss an opportunity to give a driver the opportunity to close the gap to the championship leaders,” added the ‘crashgate’ conspirator.

“If Massa doesn’t want this to happen, then he has to work out a way to go faster than Alonso — there’s nothing else he can do.

“Because if he’d been ahead of Alonso in the championship, it would have been him going past,” said Piquet.

Former 10-time GP winner and Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger agrees with Piquet that Alonso is the driver Ferrari should be concentrating on for the rest of 2010.

“Let’s not kid ourselves,” the Austrian is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

“Alonso is clearly the better man in the team; their only chance for the world championship.

“(Ferrari president Luca di) Montezemolo went shopping for him and he is going to play this card as hard as he can,” added Berger.

The FIA’s World Motor Sport Council will consider Ferrari’s team orders breach on 8 September.
For the position switch at Hockenheim last month, the Italian team was fined $100,000 by the stewards for breaking not only the tam order rule 39.1, but also the general guideline about disrepute.

It had been speculated that the disciplinary hearing would be held in Como, Italy, on September 10 — the day of a scheduled Council meeting.

But that would have clashed with Friday practice for the Italian grand prix.

The sport’s governing body has therefore convened a separate meeting two days earlier for the Ferrari matter, in Paris on September 8.

FIA president Jean Todt, implicated in the infamous Austria 2002 team orders controversy, will not chair the meeting; instead it will be headed by the deputy president for sport, Graham Stoker.

Also on Monday, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo referred to some recent “perplexing decisions”.

“But we must look ahead and believe in the fact that today, we are in the fight for the championship,” said the Italian.

“This is the Ferrari I like to see and the one our fans want to see; a team that can fight and deliver the results.”

Like McLaren, Ferrari’s factory shut down for two weeks on Sunday.