An end to team orders?

[RIKB]

Vauxhall have said that Team orders will now only be applied if it is necessary to defend their title position.

Mike Nicholson, Vauxhall's Motorsport Manager, says: " Vauxhall and Triple Eight Race Engineering are focussed on winning the Auto Trader British Touring Car Championship this year with our team of three drivers - Yvan Muller, Jason Plato and Vincent Radermecker. Yvan is the lead driver in
the team, a position he has earned by strong performances in 1999 and during this season so far. The public, Vauxhall and Triple Eight Race Engineering all want to see the best driver in any race prevail and team
tactics will only be introduced in future if there is a need to protect our championship position."

I thought that every race was about defending or improving their race position, so this statement is meaningless.

Although i guess it means that the cries of the fans yelling "foul" has reached their ears. Either that or the organisers have had a word.

[Super Tourer]

The marketing and PR people at Vauxhall must be weeping !

Its taken 4 years (god knows how much cash) and the drop-out of the major players to gain success for Vauxhall.

Yet instead of great publicity, they get bad publicity for meddling in the race positions.

I agree Mike Nicholsons's statement is completely ambiguous. We've done the rights and wrongs of team orders B4, but now Vauxhall can see the result.

Whats the point of winning races in this way,
do the fans (consumers) think the Vectra is a great car ? Do they think 888 is a mega team ? Will they rush out and buy a Vectra tommorrow ?

Will they think the 'Vauxhall BTCC Champion' - should this happen - a worthy winner ?

Sorry Vauxhall (look at Tony Blair's example)
he tried to influence the mayoral elections - look what happened to his chosen one !)

[Peter Mallett]

Anybody read MULLER's response in Autosprout? No neither did I. I got as far as the headline and his quote and that did it for me.

A reminder. S'funny how PLATO is regularly faster, thats FASTER, than Yvan.

[Invader]

mmmmmmmm!
Muller is slightly more interesting to watch.
I had a discussion at work today(sad eh?) where I questioned the logic behind backing a driver who has fewer points than a team-mate for a championship win....it has no foundation in logic and I think Jason has been taken from behind in more ways than one.

[Sparky]

Crikey! Invader and the Mallett-man in at the same time!!

I can't see the point of trying to manipulate the race order this early in the game.

It's one thing to rely on your team mate for support in the final round, when you're neck 'n' neck with the second place man on equal points; to start that stuff now is like All-Star Tag-Team Wrestling on wheels!

[Invader]

Missed you too Sparkster

[ganda123]

Vader, I know Muller's definately more interesting to watch from trackside, but when the BBC show live broadcasts they have cameras facing the drivers. People like Rydell, Muller, and the Swiss oaf (when he hasn't just been hit!) look pretty cool and calm, but Plato looks like a tight, scared rabbit. In my opinion it's more entertaining to watch. He's not as bad this year actually, but last year with Renault it was well funny