Former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt has revealed how Rubens Barrichello ignoring a pre-race agreement was behind the “embarrassing” scenes at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix.

Ferrari dominated in 2002, winning 15 of 17 races as Michael Schumacher stormed to his fifth world title, and his third in succession with the Scuderia.

However, at the Austrian Grand Prix, the sixth round of the year, the team became embroiled in controversy, after Barrichello ignored team orders until the last lap, to allow championship leader Schumacher past for his fifth win of the campaign.

Explaining the incident, Todt told the High Performance Podcast, “The team discipline, after a certain amount of races, it will be priority to one driver. So, in 2002, we started the race debriefing with team orders, and it was ‘if you are in front of Michael before the last pit stop, you must let Michael go’. And it was agreed. Wrongly or rightly, but it was agreed before, and it was accepted, because Michael was leading the world championship, and we did not want the chance to lose at the last race, probably wrongly. But it’s easy to say at the end of the season. But it could not have been wrongly [at that time].

“Anyway, it was accepted, and when we were getting to the end of the race where an agreement was taken and accepted, Rubens acted like he didn’t want to commit to what was decided, which created a big embarrassment. Normally, I would not go onto the radio. That was the engineers, Ross [Brawn], working on the race development. But I had to go on the radio and remind what was agreed. And I must say, Rubens did not do it nicely, and he put the team in a big controversial situation, even Michael.”

While team orders were legal at that time, Ferrari found itself in hot water for Schumacher’s subsequent actions on the podium, where he swapped positions with Barrichello, promoting the Brazilian onto the top step.

“I must say it was really embarrassing, because then Michael was very embarrassed,” he added. “In fact, we got penalised simply for the wrong procedure on the podium, which is true, because Michael was so embarrassed that he gave his position to Rubens, so that was the thing.”

Later in the year, after Schumacher’s title had been secured, Ferrari endured a similarly embarrassing moment, when the team appeared to attempt to stage a dead-heat finish with its drivers, only for Barrichello, who had been second, to cross the line 0.011s ahead.

“I remember, I think it was the same year in Indianapolis – they were first and second, and Michael waited for Rubens,” said Todt. “He was leading the race, and Michael waited for Rubens to arrive at the finishing line together, and Rubens passed him.

“You think in a was the candidity of Michael waiting for his team-mate to go to the finishing line, and we never spoke about that, and Michael never complained.”

Former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt has revealed how Rubens Barrichello ignoring a pre-race agreement was behind the “embarrassing” scenes at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix.

Ferrari dominated in 2002, winning 15 of 17 races as Michael Schumacher stormed to his fifth world title, and his third in succession with the Scuderia.

However, at the Austrian Grand Prix, the sixth round of the year, the team became embroiled in controversy, after Barrichello ignored team orders until the last lap, to allow championship leader Schumacher past for his fifth win of the campaign.

Explaining the incident, Todt told the High Performance Podcast, “The team discipline, after a certain amount of races, it will be priority to one driver. So, in 2002, we started the race debriefing with team orders, and it was ‘if you are in front of Michael before the last pit stop, you must let Michael go’. And it was agreed. Wrongly or rightly, but it was agreed before, and it was accepted, because Michael was leading the world championship, and we did not want the chance to lose at the last race, probably wrongly. But it’s easy to say at the end of the season. But it could not have been wrongly [at that time].

“Anyway, it was accepted, and when we were getting to the end of the race where an agreement was taken and accepted, Rubens acted like he didn’t want to commit to what was decided, which created a big embarrassment. Normally, I would not go onto the radio. That was the engineers, Ross [Brawn], working on the race development. But I had to go on the radio and remind what was agreed. And I must say, Rubens did not do it nicely, and he put the team in a big controversial situation, even Michael.”

While team orders were legal at that time, Ferrari found itself in hot water for Schumacher’s subsequent actions on the podium, where he swapped positions with Barrichello, promoting the Brazilian onto the top step.

“I must say it was really embarrassing, because then Michael was very embarrassed,” he added. “In fact, we got penalised simply for the wrong procedure on the podium, which is true, because Michael was so embarrassed that he gave his position to Rubens, so that was the thing.”

Later in the year, after Schumacher’s title had been secured, Ferrari endured a similarly embarrassing moment, when the team appeared to attempt to stage a dead-heat finish with its drivers, only for Barrichello, who had been second, to cross the line 0.011s ahead.

“I remember, I think it was the same year in Indianapolis – they were first and second, and Michael waited for Rubens,” said Todt. “He was leading the race, and Michael waited for Rubens to arrive at the finishing line together, and Rubens passed him.

“You think in a was the candidity of Michael waiting for his team-mate to go to the finishing line, and we never spoke about that, and Michael never complained.”