Team orders will not protect leaders

MOTOR SPORT/United States Grand Prix: With a genuine contest developing for the world championship, the most compelling season for years has been given a further boost by the McLaren and Renault teams confirming that the two title contenders, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, will have to race their own team-mates as well as each other in the 10 remaining races.

In a refreshing change to Michael Schumacher's domination, when Rubens Barrichello was required to play the role of reluctant sidekick, Juan Pablo Montoya of McLaren and Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault go into tomorrow's United States Grand Prix here knowing they will be free to compete for race victories, with both teams trusting in their drivers' good sense to avoid jeopardising a strong result.

The whole issue of team orders has been highly controversial since the 2003 Austrian Grand Prix, when Barrichello was instructed by the Ferrari team management to hand victory to Schumacher in the closing seconds. Pat Symonds, Renault's executive director of engineering, is particularly mindful of that event, and the criticism it attracted from the FIA, the sport's governing body.

"It is a strange situation because the FIA has said that teams cannot use team orders," he said. "I think what they mean is that, in response to the Ferrari situation, it is not permissible to use blatant team orders. I can understand why they did it, because that situation in Austria was ridiculous, but it's a very vague thing and the team can control the performance of their cars if we wish to.

"At Renault we want our drivers to race each other. So our strategy is get out there and do as best you can and, if that means beating your team-mate, it means beating your team-mate."

The ambition, he added, was to make the team operate at maximum efficiency in their attempt to win the world title. It was "not an ambition to favour one driver over another. Up to this point Alonso has looked like the driver most likely to challenge for the championship, but that doesn't mean Giancarlo has to pander to him."

Ron Dennis, the McLaren chairman, is equally adamant: "Clearly we have the ability to win races and our approach is just that, to win races. We definitely will not have any strategic approach to the championship, we will fight for race wins. There will be no partiality."

However, McLaren are still prepared to favour one driver over the other when the tactics of a race demand it as they did at last Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix. Dennis made it very clear it had been the intention that Montoya should win the race even though Raikkonen is better placed in the championship.

As Dennis explained, it was due to the fact that both cars had been slowed in response to a problem with the power steering system on the Finn's car.

"We decided to slow the pace of the cars once the Renault went out and they were driving for a one-two finish, not racing each other at that stage," he said, emphasising that there was absolutely no question of Montoya being required to move over for Raikkonen.

Montoya, for his part, has now totally accepted that McLaren always intended to give him equal treatment.

"They made a mistake like I had made a mistake before," he said. "We've got to get the things together. It's unlucky but that's what it is. I think a lot of people thought that they were trying to favour Kimi to win the race. It sounds pretty stupid when I would have been only nine points behind Kimi. One of the goals is to win the constructor championship. Myself scoring zero points and Kimi 10 doesn't help, does it?"

McLaren and Renault are approaching the halfway point in the world championship facing the challenge of managing similar situations. Their perceived number one drivers are going head to head in the title battle while their number twos are seeking to revive their reputations after a succession of unlucky breaks.

Fisichella started the season with a dominant win for Renault in the Australian Grand Prix, since when his challenge has been blunted by misfortune and technical unreliability.

As for Montoya, he was forced to miss the Bahrain and San Marino races after injuring his shoulder playing tennis and has yet to win a race this season.

After last Sunday's race at Montreal Fisichella and Montoya were in high dudgeon after failing to finish a race they had both led. Fisichella led the field from the start only to retire with hydraulic failure.