Ferrari Urged To Drop Team Orders

[Senna 0]

Ferrari urged to drop team orders

Schumacher and Barrichello are F1's dominant drivers

Renault boss Flavio Briatore says Ferrari could help put the excitement back into F1 by scrapping team orders.

Michael Schumacher has dominated for Ferrari, with Rubens Barrichello forced to play second fiddle to his team-mate.

"I believe what Ferrari is missing is two drivers fighting together," said Briatore when asked whether the way to improve F1 was to stop Ferrari winning.

"When McLaren was competitive, you had Senna and Prost fighting. A good fight (within a team) is good for the sport."

Ferrari have been at odds with the other nine teams over a number of issues affecting the future of Formula One.

While their rivals have all signed an agreement to limit testing to 30 days a year in order to cut costs, Ferrari have refused join them.

And the Italian team was the only one to turn up at a meeting last week with Max Mosley, president of ruling body the FIA, to discuss proposed rule changes.

Ferrari have also weakened the other teams' bargaining position in their dispute with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone over their share of revenues by signing a new deal to stay in the sport beyond 2008.

The Renault, Williams and McLaren teams are represented by the Grand Prix World Championship company, which has threatened to set up a rival series when the Concorde Agreement governing F1 expires in 2008.

And Renault F1 president Patrick Faure insisted the breakaway threat was still very real, despite Ferrari's deal with Ecclestone, and said he also had Japanese manufacturers Toyota and Honda on side.

"The other nine teams are clearly united on principles and we're not going to compromise on this," said Faure at the launch in Monaco of Renault's new F1 car.

"It's quite courageous to say that you renew the Concorde Agreement with only one team."

Faure added: "Last week we signed a document with Toyota, Honda, Mercedes and BMW which details what we want the Formula One championship to be after 2008.

"We've said a lot of things on the technical side we want Formula One to remain the pinnacle of the sport.

"We've said things on the commercial side we want the teams to be given much more money. And we've said things on how Formula One must be governed.

"Now we're going to discuss with all the parties involved and see how we can reach those objectives because in no way are we willing to compromise on them."