Abiteboul understands Mercedes team orders
Cyril Abiteboul understands why Mercedes has imposed 'team orders' at the tail end of the 2018 world championship.
Some think that, given Lewis Hamilton's lead over Sebastian Vettel, the Mercedes driver does not need the 'number 2' backing of teammate Valtteri Bottas.
But Abiteboul, the boss at Renault, understands Toto Wolff's call.
"When you look at the economic structure of the Concorde Agreements, there is a huge advantage to winning a constructors' title," he told France's Auto Hebdo.
"At the same time, everyone only remembers the name of the winning driver world champion, so the question is how to reconcile those two factors," Abiteboul added.
"I think it's better to take on full transparency regarding the rules of the team and I think how Mercedes manages the situation seems to be the most appropriate to me," he said.
If Hamilton wins in Austin next weekend and Ferrari's Vettel is not at least second, the Mercedes driver will secure his fifth world championship.
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That is absolute rubbish. Whether Bottas or Hamilton wins, Mercedes gets the constructor's points.
I don't buy that for one minute - these sorts of team orders are for the DRIVERS championship, and they devalue both the title and the sport.
I think if you actually read (and accept) what Toto said there was a possibility that because of a blistered tyre Hamilton could have come under pressure from Vettel and therefore Mercedes may have not got a 1, 2 finish and would therefore have lost Constructors and Individual driver points. And even if you care not to accept that then I think you are rather naive in terms of your F1 understanding. It's always gone on even when it was outlawed! "Alonso is quicker than you" and "Multi 21" are just two examples from the times when it was banned for a few seasons.
This is a multi million pound TEAM sport, where even the minnows spend 100 million dollars a year and the team pays their drivers lots and lots of money to drive their cars and to follow their contracts, which undoubtedly make them comply with team orders. This is because there are huge financial considerations in winning the world championships and gaining constructor points. Even when it was done more subtly those who were effectively the number 2 driver had longer in the pits than their team mates or were never given the benefit of the best strategy.
Fortunately, teams do this transparently now and in the case of Mercedes only when one driver is effectively out of contention of the WDC as in the case of Bottas this year. If you cast your mind back to when Schumacher was at Ferrari this was a routine thing even in early season. In 2002 Barrichello was ordered to give first place to Schumacher in round six of the season when Schumacher was already massively leading the championship. He was ordered to give him second position the year before that. I agree it's never a good thing to see for the purists but it's always been part of F1, even for the short time that it was banned and unless someone can come come up with a fool-proof method of outlawing completely then it's here to stay.
I am not naive about it. I have been an F1 fan for 45 years.
I know it has been going on, and continues to go on. That doesn't change a thing, whether it is transparent or not. It is anti-competitive, and does not have a place in sport - I don't care how much money is at stake.
You are clearly a Mercedes fan, for only Mercedes fans support this event. Just like only Ferrari fans supported Schumacher's gifts.
It doesn't matter who you support - these "hand-overs" leave a bad taste, and denigrate the sport.
Being an F1 fan for as long as you have doesn't make you immune from naivety.
And I'm afraid you've demonstrated that with your biased assessment of this topic. You state that I'm obviously a Mercedes fan as only Mercedes think this is right. let me put you right. Firstly for what it's worth I've always been a Maclaren fan so team orders aren't something I expect to have to worry about for a year or two.
On a more serious note, if you'd taken the opportunity to read my message I said that I actually agree that this is never a good thing to see but you appear to have been blinded by the perceived insult, although I stand by the comment that you have been naive.
And then to the specifics of your comment. It's not only Mercedes fans who believe this was the right thing to do. You are responding to an article regarding the comments on the Renault Team Boss Cyril Abiteboul, so that tells you what he thinks. Seb Vettel was interviewed on the Sunday of race and he agreed with it too, stating it was a no brainer. On the same show I watched at least one other Team boss who said exactly the same. And in a Sky survey on this very subject 60 percent of all fans who responded supported it.
So your premise that only Mercedes fans support this is not only clearly wrong but it's naive for you to believe it to be so.
All of that said; I still agree that it's not what we want to see but until someone comes up with a way to stop it I'd rather it be transparent. If you've got any suggestions the FIA would love to hear from you because they can't square the circle.
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