The 'team orders' saga has ratcheted up another notch with Rubens Barrichello threatening to quit Brawn GP if he is again the victim of team orders.

After the Spanish Grand Prix, the Brazilian veteran played down any comparison between the situation in Barcelona and his six years as Michael Schumacher's number two at Ferrari.

But with Ross Brawn the common denominator, a frustrated Barrichello clearly suspected that the switching of race-strategies penalised him while favouring his championship-leading team-mate, Jenson Button.

"If I get the slightest sniff that the team are favouring Jenson, I'll hang up my helmet tomorrow," he declared to the American broadcaster Speed TV.

"I need to find out what happened. I'm sure everything is okay," he added.

Team bosses Nick Fry, and Brawn himself, denied that Button is being favoured.


"Nope, no. Absolutely not," Brawn, who was involved in the infamous team orders scandal involving Barrichello at Austria in 2002, said after Sunday's race.

"I hope Rubens doesn't think that, because we are not (favouring Button).

"I think you saw at the first corner that there are no team orders," said the Briton, referring to how Barrichello had been free to challenge Button for the lead of the race.


Source : http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/he ... detail/090511110556.shtml

Don't think he'll quit now, of course he wants equal chances... but now he has a car to win he really won't quit. Just some loosy 'threat' imo.

Actually I thought that...

Quote from zeromussov :

Don't think he'll quit now, of course he wants equal chances... but now he has a car to win he really won't quit. Just some loosy 'threat' imo.

Quote from aobrien :

But with Ross Brawn the common denominator, a frustrated Barrichello clearly suspected that the switching of race-strategies penalised him while favouring his championship-leading team-mate, Jenson Button.

He might have a car capable of winning races, but for some reason, it hasn't happened yet. Either Button is better than him, or the team is really favoring Button now.

Same shit in Ferrari and Schumacher, now in Brawn and Button. He is unluckiest person in F1... Probably he had best days in F1 with Stewart team.

Typical press exaggeration.

Put the comment in a context.
"IF I get the slightest sniff that the team are favouring Jenson, I'll hang up my helmet tomorrow"

Someone obviously asked him how he'd react if Brawn were favouring Button.

If he wants them to back him over Button then he should prove he's worth it, he hasnt so far this year.

Trouble for Rubens is he needs Brawn more than Brawn needs him, If I were him I'd feel smug that I was still in the team in the first place!

Brawn can always find a replacement, even if the replacement turns out to be poor (both financially, and in driving skill), they still have the winnning combination of Brawn/Button, I wonder how long Brawn and Button can stay ahead.

Quote from 5haz :

Trouble for Rubens is he needs Brawn more than Brawn needs him, If I were him I'd feel smug that I was still in the team in the first place!

Brawn can always find a replacement, even if the replacement turns out to be poor (both financially, and in driving skill), they still have the winnning combination of Brawn/Button, I wonder how long Brawn and Button can stay ahead.

Far from it, it was Barichello working WITH Button that got the Brawn so well setup to the circuit last weekend. Whilst Button's performance this season has been admirable, i'd argue that if he'd had Bruno Senna as a team mate that in all probability he would not be doing quite so well as he is.

I thought Barichello was the class of the field in Spain, I think he has proven himself, it was an insane strategy that swung the result (how can a car on 2 stops and a car on 3 stops have TWO pit windows within a few laps of each other).

I do not suspect foul play and there's no conspiracy here that I can see, what I see is a teething problem within Brawn, like the iffy pitstops at round 1, the poor starts/clutch, the Brawn ship is lucking into calm seas with a misfit crew and they need to sort themselves out to maintain the momentum of their championship charge.

Why do people see Bruno Senna as being so special? Like ive said to other people he should go down the sportscar route (which he's been doing) because in F1 he's always gonna live in the shadows of his uncle and thats what he'd be compared to all the time.

Either way, it has already been pointed out that Barrichello's manager called the shots, and went on the wrong stratergy.

It sounds to me like Barrichello is a willing victim of team orders and he's saying the right things to the press (sounding irate at the suggestion) to further conceal the fact that it WAS team orders.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Quote from trebor901 :

Why do people see Bruno Senna as being so special? Like ive said to other people he should go down the sportscar route (which he's been doing) because in F1 he's always gonna live in the shadows of his uncle and thats what he'd be compared to all the time.

Does it matter?

The guy obviously likes racing or he wouldn't even get to this stage, f1 is the pinnicle.

Quote from trebor901 :

If he wants them to back him over Button then he should prove he's worth it, he hasnt so far this year.

That would be your opinion. I think he has proven that he's worth it and that Button has been favored.

I love it when the press selectively quote. Here's the full quote from http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/h ... t/formula_one/8043243.stm

"If I get the slightest sniff of the fact that they have favoured Jenson, I will hang up my helmet tomorrow," he told United States channel SpeedTV.

"But I know Ross wouldn't do that. He asked me to drive for him and he knows I want to race fairly with Jenson."

Quote from Mp3 Astra :

I love it when the press selectively quote. Here's the full quote from http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/h ... t/formula_one/8043243.stm

"If I get the slightest sniff of the fact that they have favoured Jenson, I will hang up my helmet tomorrow," he told United States channel SpeedTV.

"But I know Ross wouldn't do that. He asked me to drive for him and he knows I want to race fairly with Jenson."

Exactly.

Saw the Headline on the BBC Sport Website [similar to thread title] then read the article - verging on completely lying...

Lol, he did threaten to quit but with a condition which is IF Jenson's favored... I'm not really sure what to believe tbh from this whole conspiracy thingy. Button could be favored or it was simply a good call by Button's engineer...

Quote from trebor901 :

If he wants them to back him over Button then he should prove he's worth it, he hasnt so far this year.

You mean apart from actually finding the set up that allowed the Brawns to even be in the position of wining the Spanish GP ?? Yup, Barrichello hasn't proven anything so far..

As far as the OP is concerned. Well I have to say it does seem very very suspicious to me that a team should change their current championship leading drivers race tactics just to "cover the bases". If they were going to do that surely they wouldn't risk it with their current "best bet" driver considering they still truely believed a 3 stop strategy was the best. Makes no strategic sense to me. I for one believe that they recrunched the numbers after seeing the actual performance of everyone around and realised a two stopper was the strategy to be on and just left Barrichello out to dry. I suspect Barrichello believes that's what happened too. He's an old hat at this game and he knows somethings going on, you could see it written all over his face in the post race interview.

To be honest though, I think ultimately the question may well be moot. I've got a strong feeling that Ferrari are on the verge of getting their car on terms if not quicker than the Brawns and that they'll be dominating the last 8-10 races of the season.

Quote from gezmoor :

You mean apart from actually finding the set up that allowed the Brawns to even be in the position of wining the Spanish GP ?? Yup, Barrichello hasn't proven anything so far..

As far as the OP is concerned. Well I have to say it does seem very very suspicious to me that a team should change their current championship leading drivers race tactics just to "cover the bases". If they were going to do that surely they wouldn't risk it with their current "best bet" driver considering they still truely believed a 3 stop strategy was the best. Makes no strategic sense to me. I for one believe that they recrunched the numbers after seeing the actual performance of everyone around and realised a two stopper was the strategy to be on and just left Barrichello out to dry. I suspect Barrichello believes that's what happened too. He's an old hat at this game and he knows somethings going on, you could see it written all over his face in the post race interview.

To be honest though, I think ultimately the question may well be moot. I've got a strong feeling that Ferrari are on the verge of getting their car on terms if not quicker than the Brawns and that they'll be dominating the last 8-10 races of the season.

Ferraris race pace is nothing like there qualifying pace, and they have by far the most unreabliable KERS system on the grid.

Quote from gezmoor :

...snip...

While initially it seems that the change in strategy can seem like a strange choice. I do wonder if they did it because of where the other cars on the track were. From memory of the race, Barrichello came out of the pits in front of another car (Rosberg IIRC) so I thought at the time that they pitted him short to keep him infront of the car. I wouldn't mind seeing the highlights of the race again though to see exactly what happened with the pit stops.

I don't think it was team orders, more one of two things happened. Either Barrichello's manager (or whoever makes the decission) made a mistake on the strategy choice or something happened in the race, with the other cars/getting the brawn cars in gaps in that traffic that influenced the strategy.

Quote from Greboth :

While initially it seems that the change in strategy can seem like a strange choice. I do wonder if they did it because of where the other cars on the track were. From memory of the race, Barrichello came out of the pits in front of another car (Rosberg IIRC) .

That's exactly what Brawn said was the reason for the change of strategy. They were afraid Jenson would get stuck behind Rosberg, so they changed the strategy then.

Rubens couldn't get the times out of his last set of tires that the team expected (he was between 0.5 and 1.0 sec a lap slower than projected), so his three stop strategy only really failed because of that.


That all sounds perfectly plausible to me.

I don't think any team with such well matched drivers, this early in the season, would be stupid enough to favour one driver.

Really, there are more conspiracy theorists watching F1 than any other sport.

I think they are favoring button, but still Button and Barrichello did take each other out last year at Spain hehe that was funny.
sorry. Yeah the strategy i saw in the race favored Button but lets see if it stays that way after that interview they may rethink things.

Quote from AstroBoy :

the strategy i saw in the race favored Button

That is why they changed to it. I don't think they'd have chosen a strategy worse than getting stuck behind Rosberg, at least not on purpose. The fact is not 'Jenson got a better strategy' but 'Rubens failed to use his properly'. If you want to blame anyone for Rubens being slower than Jenson again, then phone Bridgestone and complain to them.

Blame Ruben's race engineer for christs sake of you must find someone to blame.

Why must there always be someone to blame? Ever heard of bad luck or accidents?

I personally don't think anyone was to blame. The tyres Barrichello used on his 2nd stint weren't as fast as the team predicted and he couldn't get them to work properly.

Remember there's still 12 races left in the season for him to have a chance at winning