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[smokin]

Anyway all teams used team orders but it only seems to be Ferrari, the team everyone love to hate, that gets the flak.

Ferrari get the flak because they were the ones who used team orders so brazenly (and I realise that my choice of word shows bias) and so often. It was taken as a sign of complete disdain for the spectators who'd paid to see drivers race each other. Their honest openness brought them more vilification than the teams who made their moves with more subtlety.

So what about McLaren telling Coulthard to jump out of Hakkinen's way on a few occasions? This was every bit as blatant as what Ferrari were up to.

Blatancy (is that a word?) is the issue. McLaren made it look like avoidance of a teammate tangle. Ferrari made it look like a team order. Perception is everything.

[madbrad]

I wasn't suggesting that only Ferrari had team orders. But the other teams let their drivers race each other under normal circumstances, and in general didn't have full time #1s. When they had team orders, it was on a race by race basis, and didn't favour the same driver every time. Between Coulthatrd and Hakinnen, they had agreements such as: the one who makes it to corner 1 first gets the honors should the need arise later in the race. In the latter part of the season, those teams would then adopt Ferrari style pecking orders if one of them was in the hunt for the title. I don't notice Ferrari getting more flak. I notice them getting more flak in proportion to how much more they did it(not just in the amount but in the verocity of their view of it). I see the others getting flak for it too.