About F1

Team orders

A team order is an instruction from the team telling a driver how to race their teammate. The most common are "let your teammate through" and "hold position", meaning don't attack the car in front. Team orders are allowed in F1, and teams use them regularly, though they're rarely popular with fans or with the driver on the losing end.

Why teams use them

A team scores points for both cars in the Constructors' Championship, and that's where the prize money comes from. Two drivers fighting each other lose time, wear out their tyres and risk a crash that takes both cars out. From the team's point of view, it often makes more sense to agree an order and bring both cars home.

There are a few common situations:

  • Helping a title contender. Late in a season, a team will usually ask the driver who's out of the title fight to help the one who's still in it.
  • Different strategies. If one driver is on fresher tyres and quicker, the team may ask the other to let them by so they can chase a car ahead.
  • Saving the cars. If both drivers are fighting hard, the team may tell them to hold position to avoid a collision.
  • Swapping back. Sometimes a driver lets their teammate past to try to catch someone, on the understanding that they'll get the place back if it doesn't work.

How they sound on the radio

Teams don't always say it outright. Over the years they've used coded messages, and fans have learned to spot them. A message like "Driver X is faster than you, can you confirm you understood that message?" became famous because everyone knew what it meant.

These days teams are usually more direct, partly because all team radio can be broadcast and there's no point hiding it.

The ban, 2003 to 2010

At the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello was leading for Ferrari when the team told him to let Michael Schumacher win. He slowed on the final straight and Schumacher passed him just before the line. Schumacher was already well ahead in the championship, and the crowd booed them on the podium.

The FIA banned team orders "which interfere with a race result" from 2003. In practice teams kept using them, just more quietly, for example by pitting drivers at different times so the order changed without anyone being told to move over.

The ban came to an end after the 2010 German Grand Prix. Ferrari's Felipe Massa was leading Fernando Alonso and was told: "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?" Massa let Alonso through. Ferrari were fined $100,000, but the FIA agreed the rule was impossible to police fairly and dropped it for 2011.

The limits that still apply

Team orders are allowed, but some things are not:

  • A team can't fix a race result in a way that harms the sport's reputation. Rules on bringing the sport into disrepute still apply.
  • A team can't use one car to cause a dangerous situation, such as deliberately blocking in an unsafe way.
  • A team can't arrange a deliberate crash. When Renault had Nelson Piquet Jr crash on purpose at Singapore in 2008 to bring out a safety car for his teammate, team principal Flavio Briatore and engineering director Pat Symonds were banned from the sport when it came out the following year. A French court later overturned both bans.

When drivers ignore them

Drivers don't always do as they're told. At the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, Red Bull told Sebastian Vettel to hold position behind Mark Webber with the coded message "Multi 21" (car 2 ahead of car 1). Vettel passed Webber anyway and won. It caused a lasting row between the two.

Ignoring an order isn't against the sporting rules, so there's no penalty from the stewards. It's a matter between the driver and their team.

Teammates working together

Team orders aren't only about swapping places. Teams sometimes use one car to help the other in less obvious ways: leaving a driver out on old tyres to hold up a rival, giving a teammate a tow in qualifying, or sending a driver out to scout a wet track before the other commits to a tyre choice. All of these are allowed as long as the driving stays within the rules of wheel-to-wheel racing.