There’s some irony in criticising Ferrari, of all teams, for striving to be fair and proper to its drivers in the still-rippling wake of the team orders controversies that favoured Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso in the distant past. Pity the team principal trying to walk this line: show blatant favouritism and you’re castigated for ‘fixing the sport’; step the other way to offer parity and you’re ridiculed for damaging your own title bid. No one can pretend this one is easy, and no wonder teams tie themselves in knots.
Speaking of which another did exactly that last weekend, a few hours before the British GP, far away from Silverstone. This team orders farrago was in the World Touring Car Cup, at the picturesque Vila Real street track in Portugal – and it was a corker.
The Swedish Cyan Racing team have been top dog in the WTCR these past couple of years with its oddly-named squad of Lynk & Co, the Chinese brand owned by Geely. Yann Ehrlacher, talented nephew of team-mate Yvan Muller, has won the title for the past two years and has been a clear and obvious focus of the team’s efforts. But recently his status has been threatened by the rising (and very rapid) Uruguayan Santi Urrutia. There’s little between them in the points as they chase the BRC Squadra Corse Hyundai of points leader Mikel Azcona, as a new generation of tin-toppers take the spotlight.
Ehrlacher raced his way into the lead — until team orders intervened
WTCR
In Vila Real, Urrutia took pole position with Ehrlacher alongside him. Before the race, WTCR’s regular TV interviewer Alexandra Legouix asked Urrutia a direct question about whether they had discussed a plan for the race. The answer was vague, but we were told there was at least a “strategy” between the pair.
So the race started. Urrutia led Ehrlacher, but then chose an early strategy on driving through the ‘joker loop’, a rallycross-inspired gimmick the series only uses in Vila Real because it’s so hard to overtake around what is otherwise a great track. In free air, Ehrlacher pushed, then took his own joker and emerged, on merit, with the lead. Then came the surprise radio call: he was ordered by the pitwall to hand the lead back to Urrutia.
Naturally, he took his time about it, but eventually the double champion eased off and let the four-time race winner past so that he could score his fifth. At the finish Urrutia celebrated as if his win was genuine, then went over to shake his team-mate’s hand. Ehrlacher did accept the gesture, but his eyes remained fixed on something in the distance. He refused to even look at the winner, his fury barely contained. Then intrepid Legouix stepped up for the post-race interviews.
Urrutia played a straight bat – again without actually giving a straight answer: “Yann and I had the pace and we were controlling the race. I said before there was a strategy to follow, there were really good points as well for the teams’ championship and for the drivers’ championship and it worked out really well. Thank you to Cyan, thank you to Yann. We did the job, we finished as we started, P1 and P2, so I’m very happy for the team.”
Urrutia didn’t hold back on his celebrations
WTCR
The trouble was Ehrlacher contradicted his team-mate… “It was not really clear, to be honest,” he said of the ‘strategy’. “For sure, the principle order was not to crash at Turn 1, as we’ve seen before. But the scenario was not planned, I had good pace, I went for proper racing. Then I got the order. You have to behave as a pro, you just need to accept it.
“It’s a shame to lose a victory like this, but I’m really happy for the points Cyan have scored because that is the most important thing before anything else, even the drivers’ championship. I just hope it helps put one blue car, whichever one it is, at the top of the standings at the end of the year.”
He’d just about kept to the Cyan mantra: the team comes first. But clearly it had been a struggle. In the official press conference that followed it appeared someone had spoken to Ehrlacher, because he was careful not to repeat his claim that team orders had been news to him. But boy, the tension… Legouix challenged them, and their refusal to budge an inch on what had happened became cringe-inducing. They both kept to the script about the team coming first, as if they really weren’t selfish drivers who only care about their own success… and it just became comical. “For sure it’s painful, I will not hide it,” admitted Ehrlacher. “It’s the way it is. At the end we are P1 and P2. The order is something to discuss, but the interests of Cyan was the priority today.”
