Owner-bosses of the Williams and Sauber teams provided letters of support for Ferrari’s team orders hearing in Paris earlier this week.

The existence of the letters emerged after the FIA released the full reasoning for its decision not to further penalise the famous Italian team.

According to reports, the letters – written by Sir Frank Williams and Peter Sauber – were presented to the session by a Ferrari lawyer.

“The judging body of the World Motor Sport Council was made aware that there was clear support for team orders in some quarters,” confirmed F1′s governing body.

The letters contributed to the Council’s decision to order the review of Article 39.1 of the sporting regulations because of the “uncertainty and complexity” that surrounds the issue.

And the FIA admitted there are difficulties in “detecting and policing” the deployment of team orders.

1992 world champion and former Williams driver Nigel Mansell, now occasionally a F1 steward, backed the review.

“Team orders were in F1 from the start and they exist in sports cars and at Le Mans, where a team can switch drivers if one of their cars breaks down,” he is quoted by the Express.

“If it is all out in the open, everyone will know what’s going on and that’s better for F1,” said Mansell.

Renault’s Robert Kubica agrees: “At least then teams would not need to make strange comments on the radio.”

Asked if he would move over if ordered by his team, the Pole told Spain’s El Pais: “I don’t see a problem.

“Sometimes in life you have to do things you don’t like. Many kids don’t want to do their homework, but they have to.”

Sauber driver Pedro de la Rosa has a similar opinion.

“Team orders have always existed, they still exist and everyone has been using them when they were banned. For me it’s important that we’re telling the truth because at the moment we’re deceiving people,” he said at Monza.

Jun.11 (GMM)  Hamilton was unhappy after the Istanbul race because while under instructions to stick to a minimum lap time whilst conserving fuel, the sister McLaren passed him for the lead.

Button, 30, clearly stated after the race that while also conserving fuel, his engineers “didn’t put a lap time on it.  They just said you have got to save a bit of fuel”.

After hearing those comments, Daily Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary wrote: “So is Button telling the truth or is he trying to dig himself out of a conflict with Hamilton by claiming the directions from the team were a bit vague?”

In Canada on Thursday, the Briton’s story had changed.

“I was told to save fuel and I was given a (target) lap time, and that was 1m31s,” Button told reporters in Montreal.

Hamilton had already confirmed after Turkey that his target lap time was 1m31s.

Button explained that he only passed Hamilton because the sister MP4-25 recorded a 1m33s “so he was 2 seconds off the lap time we were given”.

Michael Schumacher admits he does not believe Fernando Alonso when the Spaniard says he knew overtaking was not allowed at the last corner of the recent Monaco grand prix.

Due to the safety car rules confusion in the wake of the recent controversy, the FIA has vowed to clear up the regulations.

But when asked in Turkey if he still thinks Schumacher should have been demoted out of the points for the pass in Monaco, Alonso said: “Yes.

“Because it’s in the rules.  For me it’s clear.  When the safety car is on the last lap it’s not possible to overtake.”

But former Ferrari driver Schumacher, who now drives for Mercedes, suggested in Istanbul that Alonso might not be telling the truth.

“He almost hit the wall in attempting to defend his position!” the German is quoted as saying by Auto Hebdo.