From drivers sharing cars during the 1950s to controversial staged finishes, team orders have long been a staple of Formula 1.
For the most part, instructions from the pit wall are innocuous, a swapping of position for cars on a different strategy, but occasionally, they go a step too far.
The most infamous team orders in F1 history
Formula 1 is a team sport, a point that occasionally conflicts with a driver’s individual ambitions. With multiple cars and drivers at their disposal, teams have issued instructions to orchestrate a race in their best interests.
Typically, that means rallying behind its star driver by clearing their path or handing over a position. But occasionally, things don’t go exactly according to plan.
There have been race fixing, staged finishes, and simple rejection, leading to controversial climaxes. Here are five of the most infamous instances of team orders in Formula 1 history.
Fernando Alonso cheers on the podium after he won the Singapore Grand Prix.
1. Crashgate – Renault, 2008 Singapore Grand Prix
Renault had been in the throes of a dry spell when it arrived at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, and perhaps driver Fernando Alonso was particularly hungry for a victory that day.
Two laps after an early pit stop on Lap 12, Alonso’s teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. crashed heavily at the exit of Turn 17. The contact brought out a Safety Car, perfectly timed for Alonso to capitalise on as he leapt to the head of the field. He’d go on to coincidentally win the race that his teammate had fouled.
But when Renault dropped Piquet Jr. a year later, the Brazilian hit the headlines: He had been told by Renault to crash in order to best help his teammate. The ensuing investigation tainted the names of men like Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds, and Renault was levied with a massive fine while also having its points scrubbed.
It marks the one and only instance where a team has looked to manipulate a race quite to this extent.
Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton pose together after awards ceremony for the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix
2. Multi 21 – Red Bull, 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix
Who can forget Multi 21? At the second race of the season, polesitter Sebastian Vettel lost out to Red Bull teammate Mark Webber for much of the race, leaving Webber to start building a gap.
But when it came time for pit stops, Red Bull opted to pull Vettel in first. Suddenly, Webber’s undercut was destroyed — but the Australian still held his lead, even after his own final stop.
Where Lando Norris ceded his position in the Hungarian Grand Prix to his teammate in 2024, Vettel did the opposite back in 2013.
He launched an attack on his stablemate despite instructions from the pit wall for Car 1 to remain behind Car 1, the root of the infamous ‘Multi 21’ message. With 10 laps to go, Vettel was through, leaving Webber furious and muttering “Multi-21” to his German colleague, who confessed the situation made him feel like the black sheep.
Still, he won the race, and that year’s title.
Ferrari was found guilty of breaking team order rules and fined after Felipe Massa appeared to let Fernando Alonso pass him to win the German Grand Prix.
3. Fernando is faster than you – Ferrari, 2010 German Grand Prix
Say the phrase, “Fernando is faster than you,” and somewhere out there, a Felipe Massa fan will still cringe.
In 2010, team orders were banned in F1. To sidestep that, Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley sent a radio message to Massa that, while not an instruction in itself, was laden with implications.
Massa gained the lead at the start of the race, with teammate Alonso soon close behind. The two began battling for the lead of a race that would ultimately impact the World Championship — and that resulted in Smedley’s message: “Felipe, Fernando is faster than you.”
Massa allowed his teammate past at the hairpin. All Smedley could add was, “Okay mate, good lad. Just stick with it now. Sorry.”
Still, the FIA determined that the message constituted team orders, and Ferrari was fined $100,000 — but in the aftermath, the FIA also realised it was going to be next to impossible to police every, increasingly subtle, transgression. The ban on team orders was lifted at the end of the 2010 season.
Moral victor Rubens Barrichello lifts the winners trophy despite finishing second.
4. Late change – Ferrari, Austria 2002
Heading into the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher was leading the championship in dominant fashion, and with the help of teammate Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari led the Constructors’ title too.
In Austria, Barrichello took pole position before making a fine start to take a lead that he maintained through two pit stops and two Safety Car periods. For a driver who had failed to finish the past several races, it must have felt glorious.
Then, just before the finish line, Barrichello lifted and Schumacher passed him to take victory.
The backlash was fierce. Even if he had finished second, Schumacher would have retained a dominant lead in the championship, one that Barrichello would have been hard-pressed to counter. It seemed to be a completely pointless call from the team — and fans were irate. The situation wasn’t helped when Schumacher gave Barichello the winner’s trophy and the top step of the rostrum.
Unsurprisingly, the FIA was angry — so angry, in fact, that it finally issued a ban on team orders that lasted for just under a decade.
Lando Norris celebrates his second position with third placed teammate Oscar Piastri.
5. Team reasons – McLaren, Italy 2025
In the midst of an intra-team championship battle, McLaren instructed Oscar Piastri to move aside for Lando Norris in the latter stages of the Italian Grand Prix.
The pair were out front ahead of their one and only stop of the race, though Max Verstappen in third was the effective race leader. In second, Norris was given the choice to pit first or second, opting to pit a lap later.
Piastri duly stopped first and was turned around in 1.9 seconds. A lap later, it was Norris’ turn, though a slow change on his left-front wheel delayed his exit and allowed his teammate into second place – Verstappen having reclaimed the lead.
Soon after, the call came from the pit wall to swap places. “This is a bit like Hungary last year – we pitted in this order for team reasons,” said engineer Tom Stallard. “Please let Lando past, then you are free to race.” The Australian obliged.
McLaren had gone to great pains throughout F1 2025 to ensure fairness between its drivers, and deemed Norris’ slow stop a team error and not part of the ebb and flow of a normal race.
The switch meant, rather than extending his championship lead to 37 points, Piastri instead saw it reduced to 31, a six-point swing, with eight races remaining.
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