By Max Drinkwater
During a race weekend you’ll hear hundreds of radio messages between team and driver. Whether it’s the famous calls of “box,box” or Ferrari’s infamous “we’re checking…..” the use of team radios have become an integral part of a driver’s tools to race with.
But at times teams use driver radios to better position their drivers or swap positions between their two drivers. So today we will be taking a look at some of F1’s most controversial team orders.
The order that started it all – Ferrari to Barrichello
The 2002 Austrian Grand Prix saw Rubens Barrichello line up on pole and heading into the closing stages Barrichello was sitting in P1. What looked like a routine finish quickly turned into a sour stain on F1 history as Ferrari gave the order for Barrichello to move over for chasing teammate Michael Schumacher. Barrichello slowed on the very last lap on the finish line allowing Schumacher to take the win. The podium was a farce with Schumacher forcing Barrichello onto the top step despite the German national anthem playing. This incident caused team orders to be banned from Formula 1.
Crashgate – Renault to Piquet Jr – A unique case of team orders occurred at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. The race seemed routine with the only major incident being when Nelson Piquet Jr found the wall on lap 14 and the subsequent safety car allowing teammate Fernando Alonso to lead the race following an early pit stop and whilst others ran low on fuel and had to make further stops Alonso claimed victory and all seemed fair. However, after the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix Piquet Jr was dropped by Renault and he came out and accused Renault of asking him to crash on purpose during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix in order to help Alonso’s race scenario. The aftermath saw Renault banned for 2 years, key team members including Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds were also banned and more controversy aroused in regards to the 2008 world championship with Felipe Massa believing crashgate impacted his title challenge which he eventually lost to Lewis Hamilton.
“Fernando is faster than you”- Ferrari to Felipe Massa – At the 2010 German Grand Prix Ferrari bent the rules around team orders. At the time, direct team orders through driver radios was banned so Ferrari came up with a solution to get Fernando Alonso closer to his second world title. Instead of giving the order for Massa to move over for Alonso, Massa’s race engineer came over the radio and delivered the line “Fernando is faster than you”. The message was then followed by Massa slowing down and Alonso passing the Brazilian. The message was met with outrage due to the banning of team orders and the message being a blatant team order between drivers.
“Multi 21” – Red Bull to Webber & Vettel – The team order that defined a teammate rivalry of the early 2010’s. A team order so clear Webber famously repeated it to Vettel in the cooldown room following the race. “Multi 21 Seb” was an almost carbon copy of the message over both drivers radios which Webber forced back to Vettel during the post race proceedings. The order came for car 2 of Webber to stay ahead of car 1 of Vettel. But instead of an easy finish Vettel defied team orders and aggressively fought for position and overtook Webber sparking the start of a bitter inter team rivalry.
Papaya Rules – McLaren to Piastri & Norris – Finally the tale of the 2025 season was overshadowed by McLaren’s papaya rules. Their approach to drivers fighting clean and fair seemed like the right call initially but over time the calls became controversial. At the 2025 Italian Grand Prix, Piastri was forced to give up second place and a chance at a win to Norris who lost out to Piastri after a slow pit stop. This saw backlash from fans as Piastri was forced to lose out on points and a win due to an error out of his control. Further collisions at Austin and Singapore drew more controversy when the fair racing aspect was pushed aside and the gloves came off between the two as their battles became more intense and more collisions occurred.
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