“Fernando Alonso is faster than you”- When Ferrari was fined $100,000 for helping two-time Champion win ‘fixed race’

Ferrari made Felipe Massa give up his race-winning position to teammate Fernando Alonso at the 2010 German GP.

In his 15 years of F1 racing, Massa won 11 races but failed to lift a World Championship. He came agonizingly close with Ferrari in 2008 when he lost out on the Title after a late race overtake made by eventual Champion Lewis Hamilton on Timo Glock.

In spite of that, Massa was a crucial figure in the Ferrari set up during his time in Maranello. Between 2010 and 2013, he had Fernando Alonso as his teammate at the Scuderia. While they never particularly had a poor relationship, one incident involving them changed the way team radio messages were handled forever.

Alonso arrived in Ferrari as the man to lead them back to Title glory. As a result, he was an established number-one driver whereas Massa was forced to remain number-two.

Back in 2010, teams were not allowed to hand out team orders, even if it meant compromising their races. Ferrari however managed to find a way out of it.

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Felipe Massa was forced to let Fernando Alonso pass him

At the 2010 German GP, Alonso’s main rival for the race was Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel. The two of them scrambled all around the track for the race lead. But, it was Alonso’s teammate Massa who took advantage to pass them both.

Massa took the lead up front, and Alonso was left behind. Toward the closing stages of the race, the latter tried to pass Massa for the lead but was unsuccessful in the attempt. After some intense discussion in the Ferrari pit-wall, they decided that they had to issue team orders somehow without being too direct.

“Fernando is faster than you,” was the message Massa’s race-engineer Rob Smedley conveyed. The Sao Paolo born driver had to give up his position unwillingly due to his own team putting pressure on him. It was a decision that baffled viewers as there was no reason for the Italian outfit to do this.

They were heading towards a 1-2 finish anyway. Also, it was highly unlikely that Alonso could still fight Vettel for the Title. The FIA were confused too, as Ferrari did not technically issue any team order. However, it was clear to everyone that their intent was to make Alonso overtake Massa. They decided to hand a $100,000 fine to the Maranello based outfit.

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