Ban team orders is call from Virgin's F1 chief

Team chiefs and drivers up and down the pit lane have been almost unanimous in their belief that the Maranello marque's most heinous crime was not necessarily the order itself, more the clumsy way they told Felipe Massa to cede the leadership of the German Grand Prix to his team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Massa slowed visibly after being told by race engineer Rob Smedley that Alonso was the quicker driver and allowed the Spaniard to pass him and power on to the chequered flag.

The backlash from fans worldwide has been one of feeling cheated that they were deprived of a proper race but the impression from inside the paddock is that Formula 1 is a sport torn between team priorities and individual gains.

With both parties vying for lucrative championship titles at the end of the 19-race season, agendas are inevitably going to be crossed.

Team orders were outlawed in 2002 after Rubens Barrichello allowed Michael Schumacher to pass him on the last lap of the Austrian Grand Prix, but the notion of a team favouring one driver over another has never fully been buried under the tarmac.

"These things do happen, it was just handled very clumsily," Virgin Racing team principal John Booth told the Yorkshire Post last night.

Booth's South Yorkshire team are new to Formula 1 this season and are involved in a desperate fight for 10th place in the constructors' championship and an enormous 17m in prize money which could define their future in the sport.

But as a driver himself in his youth, he sees the situation from both angles.

"If it was me who was driving there's not a chance in hell I would have let anyone past," Booth added.

"If it was the last lap of the season and he (Alonso) needed the points for the championship, you could forgive it, because winning the world championship is so important for teams commercially and in terms of prize money.

"If it's us, and there's a point available towards the end of the season and that point is so important for the team, then I would expect the drivers to do the right thing, but I would never instruct them to do so.

"Team orders should be eradicated completely.

"Fans have the right to be angry. People pay a lot of money to watch Formula 1 and back home people pay a licence fee and watch it on telly, and to see an outcome like that, it leaves a sour taste."

Booth's opposite number at Lotus – the Dinnington team's main rivals for 10th place – was more unequivocal in his condemnation of Ferrari's method.

Mike Gascoyne said: "There are team orders, and we have to accept there will be. It was just handled very badly

"There will come a point in the season when you have to prioritise one driver because he has the best chance of winning a championship. You've got to do what's best for the team. But is this the right stage of the season to be doing what they did?

"There was an outcry in Austria (2002) because it was so blatant as it was on the last lap.

"So you would have thought Ferrari would have learned because it wasn't much less blatant.

"Where the fans feel cheated is having done that, to then sit in the press conference and say 'No, that wasn't the case', and 'Of course there wasn't a team order'. Well, there clearly was. Ferrari and Formula 1 have to learn that the people watching do not like it.

"The team bosses have to take note that people don't want to see it, but if you are going to do it then you have to do so cleanly and fairly."

Gascoyne even admitted to feeling a degree of sympathy with Ferrari given the championship situation and the pressure they were likely to be under.

"If they are going to win the drivers' championship, Fernando is the only one who is going to do it and you have to prioritise," he added.

Ferrari were fined $100,000 for breaching FIA regulations with the matter referred to the World Motor Sport Council who, if they choose to pursue the case, have unlimited powers of punishment at their disposal.

McLaren driver Jenson Button, whose team publically back both the 2009 world champion and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton equally, agrees with Booth that team orders should be banned completely.

"Team orders in Formula 1 are wrong, although sometimes they are inevitable.

"We all want to win, and I know that every team wants to win, both the constructors' and drivers' championships.

"But they have to give both their drivers the same opportunity to do so.

"This was very early in the season. How early is it going to start in the future?

"If I was told my team-mate is faster, I would think my team-mate is faster, so I would keep driving and hope he doesn't overtake me," said reigning champion Button.