Williams and BMW split on team orders

Williams-BMW are at loggerheads over whether team orders should be used to boost Juan Pablo Montoya’s bid to take the World Championship from Michael Schumacher.

Montoya’s crushing win in Sunday’s German Grand Prix left three men with a realistic chance of the drivers’ crown. The Colombian trails Ferrari’s Schumacher by six points, while McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen is three points further adrift.

Though team orders were banned following last year’s ‘Ferrari fix’ in Austria when Rubens Barrichello was ordered to move over for Schumacher, there is little to stop teams manufacturing a better result for their title hopeful. Ferrari and McLaren look set to ask their other drivers, Barrichello and David Coulthard, to come to their team-mates’ aid when Formula One resumes in Hungary two weeks on Sunday. But Montoya’s team appear to have differing views on whether Ralf Schumacher should be asked to play the support role.