Are team orders at Ferrari inevitable? Warning from former race engineer Smedley

The Ferrari team had reason to celebrate following Charles Leclerc’s victory at the British Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver crossed the finish line ahead of Mercedes veteran George Russell and his own team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who had been the better-placed Ferrari driver in the sprint race.

Given the state of the World Championship, some observers wondered: shouldn’t Ferrari have backed Hamilton, as the seven-time world champion is better placed in the championship standings than his team-mate from Monte Carlo? Following the eventful Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit, Hamilton is now just 32 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli. Leclerc, on the other hand, is 71 championship points adrift of the top of the table.

Are Ferrari team orders the only route to the World Championship title?

On the ‘High Performance’ podcast, former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley therefore concludes, when asked whether Ferrari should have swapped Leclerc and Hamilton’s positions via team orders: “I agree 100 per cent.”

“I’m actually contradicting my own logic here and saying that I genuinely believe such an extreme measure is Ferrari’s only chance of winning the World Championship,” adds the 52-year-old Briton, explaining: “If they try to take on Mercedes with the car, and then also pit their own drivers against each other – even though the gap in the Drivers’ Championship between Lewis and Charles is significant – then the likelihood of winning the Drivers’ Championship drops considerably.”

“As I said, I’m contradicting my own logic here, but I also think there are too many variables at play. So why would they do that at all? But I believe this is the only strategy left to them to win the world championship with Lewis,” Smedley reiterates.

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