talkSPORT Exclusive – Irvine: ‘Massa has to do what the team says’

Former Formula One star Eddie Irvine believes Felipe Massa had no choice but to allow Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso to pass him during Sunday’s Grand Prix.

The Brazilian was leading with just 18 laps to go at Hockenheim, but the team ordered him to allow Alonso to overtake him and the Spaniard went on to take the chequered flag.

As a driver who often played second fiddle to Michael Schumacher in the 1990s, Irvine insists Massa would have had no option, despite F1 rules which prohibit team orders that interfere with race results.

Irvine told Hawskbee & Jacobs: “Massa obviously has a contract where he has got to do what the team says.

“My contract (with Ferrari) didn’t say I was the number two driver, it never said I had to pull over. It just said ‘I will follow team instructions at all times’. Massa obviously signed something similar.”

Irvine clearly has sympathy for Massa but the people he feels most sorry for are the F1 fans whose enjoyment of the race was ruined by such an unsatisfactory finish.

He added: “I don’t think it should be allowed in this day and age because the fans are the number one thing and the fans wanted to see a race between Massa and Alonso.”

Ferrari have been fined $100,000 for contravening the sport’s rules, but Irvine believes the controversial decision could ultimately benefit the Italian team.

“What Alonso did at the weekend could win him the Championship,” he added. “But what Red Bull have been doing, where they’ve let their drivers race each other, could very well cost them.”