Jun.12 (GMM)  Leading bosses have rejected David Coulthard’s suggestion that formula one overturn its ban on team orders.

In the wake of the Turkish grand prix two weeks ago, it was reported that the controversies may have been triggered by Red Bull and McLaren trying to circumvent the prohibition of race-altering team instructions.

In Red Bull’s case, Mark Webber’s engine had been turned down ostensibly to save fuel, amid continuing rumours that the chasing sister car driven by Sebastian Vettel was temporarily running higher revs in the moments before their crash.

And teammates Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton set hearts racing on the McLaren pitwall at Istanbul Park when they fought wheel-to-wheel despite being told to slow down and conserve fuel.

13-time GP winner and British commentator Coulthard said it is an “absurd situation whereby teams have to defend the indefensible”.

“Do they (team orders) happen in F1?  Yes, is the short answer,” the Scot wrote in his latest column for the Telegraph.

Coulthard, 39, argues not only that teams can easily steer around the team order ban, but that some sorts of instructions are legitimate.

Indeed, team orders were completely legal until 2002, when Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello was crudely ordered by then Ferrari team boss Jean Todt – who is now president of the governing FIA – to let Michael Schumacher win in Austria.

But while their lives may have been easier in Turkey if team orders were permitted, the bosses of Red Bull and McLaren said they would not support a push to overturn the ban.

“I think team orders are wrong,” Christian Horner said in Montreal.

“You employ professional drivers and we shouldn’t dictate how they drive the car.  I think it would be wrong to deny the public from what a grand prix should be about which is man and machine competing with each other,” said the Red Bull team principal.

His McLaren counterpart Martin Whitmarsh agrees.

“I think we’re happy with the regulations as they are.  I don’t mind if other teams want to (use team orders) and that’s up to them, but within our team, we’ve tried to treat all of our drivers with respect,” he said.

(GMM)  On the opening day of the fifth grand prix weekend of 2010, Michael Schumacher’s brother thinks the seven time world champion may have turned the corner.

6-time GP winner Ralf Schumacher, six years younger than the Mercedes driver, is in the Barcelona paddock this weekend as sporting boss of the GP3 team RSC Mucke.

Mercedes has heavily updated its 2010 car for the Spanish grand prix, including a longer wheelbase that is touted to suit 41-year-old Schumacher’s famous affection for strong front-end handling.

In morning practice, he was ahead of Nico Rosberg by more than three tenths, having been outpaced by the younger German in nearly every previous track session.

Schumacher looked comfortable and competitive once again in the afternoon.

“Here in free practice we have seen that everything for Michael looks a whole lot better,” Ralf told Sky television.

May 4 (GMM)  Gerhard Berger has backed Michael Schumacher amid a climate of continuing criticism of the seven time world champion’s performance so far in 2010.

Four races into 41-year-old Schumacher’s F1 comeback at the wheel of a Mercedes, the critique of pundits has ranged from a verdict of disappointment to a harsh denigration of his skills after three years of retirement.

“I find all the talk about Michael a bit tedious, because it is always with a negative slant,” 10-time GP winner Berger, who raced in Schumacher’s era until retiring in 1997, said on Austrian TV ‘Sport und Talk aus dem Hangar 7′.

“Michael has come back and is doing what he wants.  I think you cannot change the status of someone who is a seven time world champion,” added the 50-year-old former Ferrari and McLaren driver.

Austrian Berger backs Schumacher to improve his pace in the forthcoming races.

“We know his ambition.  We know that if he does something, he does it right.  I think we must take him seriously again in the future,” he said.

After the initial three races of 2010, Berger admits that Schumacher’s performance in China was a setback.

“It was weak, but that can happen,” said the former teammate of the late F1 great Ayrton Senna.

“I think he has done an excellent job so far — except for the last race.  In the first three grands prix he was in the top six of the championship.  That is a great achievement,” added Berger.

Also defending Schumacher is his countryman and friend Sebastian Vettel, who until the great German’s struggle in 2010 was nicknamed by the German press ‘Baby-Schumi’.

“He is yet to exhaust the potential of his car and will therefore get better from a driving point of view from race to race,” the Red Bull driver told Switzerland’s Motorsport Aktuell.

“I wouldn’t write him off for a long time,” added 22-year-old Vettel.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil also sees nothing odd about Schumacher’s comeback to date.

“I had counted on it being difficult for him.  Formula one has changed to the extremes in the past few years so that you can lose half a second and not know exactly why,” he told spox.com.

“Plus it would have been funny if Schumacher had beaten us all after three years of being retired — then he really would have been the god of F1.

“That doesn’t mean he’s doing badly; on the contrary, he’s always in the top ten.  He only needs time,” added Sutil.