Anderson suspects Ferrari team orders
Quote selected text Published by clive March 27th, 2008 in Formula 1
Team orders were in play by the Ferrari team in Malaysia, a veteran formula one expert suspects.
Gary Anderson, a semi-retired grand prix car designer for teams like Jordan and Jaguar, thinks Felipe Massa was manipulated into second place at Sepang despite scoring pole position and leading race winner Kimi Raikkonen until the first pit stops.
A series of quick sectors put Finn Raikkonen in front during the pit stop shuffle, and shortly afterwards Massa spun into the gravel.
“The way in which Raikkonen went past Massa at the first stop makes me suspect that Ferrari had it planned from the outset,” the Irishman told Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell.
Anderson reckons Ferrari still operates a ‘number one’ driver policy, and highly rated reigning world champion Raikkonen, 28, is the obvious choice at present.
He said: “Don’t forget, we are talking about a man who was brought in to replace the seven time world champion Michael Schumacher.
“For me, the key scene was the first corner, when Raikkonen was intelligent enough to not get involved in a collision with Felipe.
“Kimi always saw the bigger picture,” Anderson added.
Meanwhile, Motorsport Aktuell also published a rumour that Honda’s team CEO and former team principal Nick Fry could soon be drafted in as Super Aguri’s new boss.
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Team orders may say ‘push as fast as possible with Felipe in the pits and we can get you out before Felipe.’
But Kimi ran a blistering lap while Felipe was in the pits, that is up to the driver to control.
Like those Renault pit-to-car messages from last year - “Fisi, you’re faster than him, pass him”, “You need to push now, Fisi”, “A little faster and you’ll catch him, Fisi.” I can just imagine Fisi’s muttered responses inside his helmet - “D’ya think I’m not trying, ya b*****d!” Poor Fisi - still, he seems to be getting the last laugh this year.
And you’re right, Aracer, whether there were team orders or not, it was Kimi who put in the quick laps to get past Massa and that’s what really matters.
Massa’s pitstop was 8.5 secs, Kimi’s stop was 7.9 seconds and we saw Kimi’s lead when Massa exited the pits was only a 100 feet or so, let’s say about .6 of a second !!!! I find it hard to believe that was PLANNED. LUCK is what that was but I will give Kimi credit he did extend his lead 4 seconds in the 10 laps before Massa exited.
Agreed, Number 38 - easy to say with hindsight that it was all planned, not so easy in the race. And impossible before the race starts, when you don’t know who is going to be what position and what the lap speeds are going to be.
Kimi reminded me of what Schu would do when his Ferrari teammates pitted, run his fastest laps of the race up to that point. Kimi did a great job of doing just that.
We should give credit where credit is due.
Agreed.