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Did Ferrari Win The Monte Carlo Grand Prix? A question which will soon be answered if McLaren are found guilty of team orders and excluded from the results of the Monaco Grand Prix following an investigation by the FIA. The FIA and many are of the opinion that McLaren might have staged the results of Sunday’s race, by preventing Lewis Hamilton from fighting Fernando Alonso for the race victory. In fact it was quite obvious that McLaren forced Hamilton to hold back and ensure a double-podium finish.

It is normal for a team to tell its drivers to relax if they are running first and second in a race, though in Monaco it was clear that Fernando Alonso was meant to win the race from the very beginning. Lewis Hamilton may be the number two driver at the Woking squad, though that should not prevent him from fighting for the win. Lewis could have won the race and probably would have if McLaren did not change his strategy or tell him to hold back.

The FIA statement read as such, “The FIA has launched an investigation into incidents involving the McLaren Mercedes team at the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix in light of a possible breach of the International Sporting Code. The relevant evidence is under review and a further announcement will be made in due cours.” Lewis Hamilton played the team game and side-stepped questions of a staged result. “To see that I’m at a similar pace to Fernando is a positive for me, but it’s just something I have to live with. I am in car number two so I am the number two driver.”

McLaren Team Principal Ron Dennis firmly denied that he employed team orders, though you would not expect him to say anything else would you? “We do not favour anybody. There will be times and places when they are free to race, but this isn’t one of them. I don’t like to slow drivers down, I don’t like them to be frustrated but it is the way you have to win the Monaco Grand Prix. We don’t have team orders, we had a strategy to win this race.”

Dennis clearly makes a distinction between team orders and team stategy. However, in this case the two are not seperated by much. Based on what everyone watching the race could see, McLaren fabricated the end result of the race. They prevented one of their drivers from challenging for the victory and from actually taking it when he had a good chance. Those are team orders, regardless of what you choose to call them.

This is of course very important to Ferrari as if McLaren are found guilty, both drivers may be excluded from the race results. Though that would not be fair to Lewis Hamilton, it would be of much benefit to Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. Not only would Felipe be promoted to victory but Kimi would also be upgraded to sixth place. These extra points combined with Hamilton and Alonso’s loss of points would be a major bonus for Ferrari’s Driver and Constructors’ Championship challenges. 

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