Brundle: Hockenheim 'excruciatingly painful'

Former F1 racer Martin Brundle has joined his former BBC pundit Eddie Jordan in calling for the rule banning team orders to be removed from F1.

The issue of team orders raised its head following the German Grand Prix, with Ferrari swapping its drivers round in the race to allow Fernando Alonso to take victory ahead of Felipe Massa; with the Spaniard better placed in the championship standings.

Writing in his latest blog for the BBC, Brundle said he had found what happened following the race at Hockenheim to be 'excruciatingly painful and infuriating' as Ferrari and its drivers attempted to deny the use of any team orders and said the time had come for the regulations to be looked at.

"Formula 1's governing body, the FIA, should immediately assemble all the commissions, councils and empowered people required to cancel regulation 39.1 which prohibits team orders," Brundle wrote. "It is unworkable and largely not policeable.

"There are hundreds of shades of grey around the interpretation of what constitutes team orders and when it is acceptable through the season to start applying them."

Brundle did however add that Ferrari deserved everything that happens to them following the incident for the manner in which it had dealt with what happened in Germany, with the World Motor Sport Council set to discuss added sanctions beyond the $100,000 fine already handed out.

"Why on earth did Ferrari handle it so badly before, during and after the race?" he continued. "I'm afraid they deserve everything that is thrown at them.

"Obviously, they never imagined Massa would be leading from Alonso, although he started on the cleaner side of the grid in third, otherwise they would have pre-empted and choreographed everything so much better. The fans and media are not stupid.

"The radio discussions which were transmitted are very damning, with Massa's engineer Rob Smedley initially, as he always does, motivating and encouraging his man to drive faster still. Then he has to deliver the killer message which we all understood to mean let Alonso past...

"...the $100,000 fine has been applied so the team are officially guilty of breaching the regulations. Surely the World Council can only add to that penalty at their yet-to-be announced hearing."