Should Red Bull Have Issued Team Orders to Help Daniel Ricciardo at Russian GP?
Team orders are a controversial subject in Formula One. Some people like them and some don't, but they have always been part of the sport—even from 2003 to 2010, when they were supposedly banned.
Red Bull—who entered F1 as a constructor in 2005, in the midst of the ban—have repeatedly caused flaps over the last few seasons for their application of team orders, but they have not hesitated to use them.
Not until now.
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With Mercedes wrapping up the Constructors' Championship at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday, Daniel Ricciardo is Red Bull's last (very faint) hope for continuing their run of four straight titles. The 25-year-old Australian is now 92 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton with 100 points left up for grabs at the final three races.
Ricciardo could be closer, but Red Bull have refused to ask his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, to move aside. That is a surprising decision, and a wrong one.
In Singapore, with Nico Rosberg out of the race, the Red Bulls finished second and third behind Hamilton, with Vettel leading his teammate home by less than a second. After the race, both drivers were still mathematically alive in the championship, although Ricciardo was 57 points ahead of Vettel and trailed Hamilton by 60.
It would have been a simple maneuver to have Vettel let Ricciardo past, securing three extra points for the Aussie.
After the race, though, team principal Christian Horner said, "It’s down to them racing each other on the track. It would be wrong to interfere with that in the situation we’re in, so we let them race, as you saw," according to long-time F1 writer Adam Cooper.
Horner added that, "If there was a realistic chance of Daniel winning, and Sebastian was mathematically out of the championship, then of course we’ll do the best that we can for the team." But that has not proven to be the case.
In Japan, it is hard to say exactly what would have happened had the race not been cut short following Jules Bianchi's accident. The Red Bull drivers had traded places three times before Vettel pitted when the safety car was called in response to Bianchi's crash. Ricciardo stayed out and when the race was stopped, it appeared he had finished third, ahead of Vettel.
When a race is stopped, however, the final result is taken from two laps before the red flag appears. This put Vettel back on top, taking another three points away from Ricciardo. Had the race restarted, it is likely Vettel would have been able to pass his teammate anyway, with the team not imposing any orders and tyres that were eight laps newer.
Even with the third place at Suzuka, Vettel was mathematically eliminated from the championship chase.
With that in mind, Ricciardo spoke to Autosport's Jonathan Noble about the chances of Red Bull applying team orders in Russia, saying, "Let's say on Sunday if there is a situation where maybe Seb is in front, and I am quicker, unless it's going to jeopardise more than one position for him, it's something that is likely."
Early in the race, that is exactly what happened. Ricciardo made a poor start and was stuck behind Vettel until the Australian pitted on Lap 11. While Ricciardo was fighting with his teammate, television viewers heard him tell the team over the radio that, "We're losing lots of time."
Perhaps knowing that Ricciardo would have to pit soon, the team did not ask Vettel let him though. And perhaps Ricciardo was not really expecting them to at that point. In the Autosport interview, he had told Noble, "You can't really apply it at the start of the race because anything can happen. ... I think at the start of the race you have got to go each man for himself, and probably figure it out after that."
In the end, Ricciardo did finish ahead of Vettel, but he was also within two seconds of Fernando Alonso. Could those laps behind Vettel at the start have cost Ricciardo sixth place and another two points?
It (almost certainly) won't matter. We have known since about the second race of the season that either Hamilton or Rosberg would win the Drivers' Championship. But it also seemed possible that Ricciardo could keep the race alive until Abu Dhabi, where double points will be awarded—50 for the victory.
Once it became obvious that Ricciardo was the only possible challenger for the Mercedes duo, they should have done everything possible to ensure he scored the maximum points in each race.
After the Russian race, though, Horner told Autosport's Noble that the team did not even consider asking Vettel to give up his position to Ricciardo at the start of the race. "Obviously it was very early in the race anyway, and so many things can unfold," he said. "It didn't make any sense at that point."
In the same interview, Horner also noted the near-impossibility of Ricciardo's challenge. "In the end he is 92 points behind with 100 available. He would have to win the last three races with Lewis [Hamilton] or Nico [Rosberg] not finishing, which is a long shot."
A long shot? Of course. But until the title is clinched, Red Bull have nothing to lose by helping Ricciardo. Vettel has already announced he is leaving the team at the end of the season, so there is not even a need to worry about damaging the team's relationship with him.
What if Hamilton and Rosberg take each other out in the United States in three weeks and mechanical gremlins—which even Mercedes have not been immune to—strike in Brazil or Abu Dhabi?
Ricciardo will need a lot of what-ifs to remain in the championship hunt until the final race, but nobody thought he would win in Canada, Hungary or Belgium, either. And it would be a bit easier if he had some of the points he has lost to Vettel over the last three races.
Team orders may not always be popular, but since they are allowed, Red Bull should be taking advantage of them. They already moved Vettel aside for Ricciardo twice earlier in the season—now is not the time to get shy.
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