» Sauber: All teams support team orders

Peter Sauber may have potentially upset a few key team figures and the FIA with his claims that all teams – either openly or secretly – support the lifting of the current ban on team orders.

The Swiss team boss and Sir Frank Williams – the head of the Williams F1 outfit – each wrote a letter of support to the World Motor Sport Council in favour of Ferrari’s decision to exercise team orders, albeit illegally, at the German Grand Prix.

“All the teams are for team orders when they make sense, but no one admits it openly!” Sauber told Swiss newspaper Blick.

Sauber’s support of Ferrari is perhaps not a surprise to some, given that his outfit buys its engines off the works outfit – but the support from Williams was certainly less easy to explain.

Williams and Ferrari have never enjoyed the closest of relationships, as Sir Frank attests.

“We are no friends of Ferrari,” he said. “But we just thought a total ban on team orders is not necessary.”