Gerhard Berger has scolded Mercedes for apparently imposing team orders during last weekend’s Belgian grand prix.
Shortly before Michael Schumacher passed his teammate Nico Rosberg at Spa-Francorchamps, the younger German was told by the pitwall to conserve fuel.
Berger told Servus TV that the position switch was conceived deliberately to give Schumacher a grandstand finish on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his debut.
“It should have been a race and not a commercial shoot,” the Austrian commented.
Team orders are legal in 2011 but Berger believes that “in the circumstances it is totally wrong for Mercedes to do such strategies”.
“They should be putting more thought into making a winning car,” he said.
Berger also commented on McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who was involved in two crashes last weekend at Spa.
“He is extremely aggressive and the best overtaker in the field, but at times he overdoes it.
“If he was sitting in the Red Bull, he would not have to take so many risks and so he would get into a lot less mischief,” he said.
Source: GMM
