Dietrich Mateschitz (Red Bull) is against team orders

The boss of the Red Bull team, Dietrich Mateschitz, said he would prefer one of his drivers to finish second in the World Championship rather than imposing team orders.

The team refused to throw their weight behind Mark Webber this season, even though the Australian was in a better position than his teammate Sebastian Vettel at the end of the season.

Vettel won the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday, finishing ahead of Webber and the championship leader, Fernando Alonso.

This result means that Fernando Alonso will be champion on Sunday in Abu Dhabi by finishing second if Vettel wins.

Although Alonso has a slight points advantage, Mateschitz claims that imposing team orders was never an option and that he would prefer his drivers to lose “under the right circumstances.”

Interfering with the drivers was never an option for us. The whole world condemned Ferrari after what happened in Hockenheim. Moreover, it’s not certain that Alonso will always be the luckiest. Abu Dhabi is a very uncertain race. Sunday night we will know if we have won the other half or not. A fair second place would be better than a victory by playing the game of team orders.

Mateschitz admitted that winning the constructors’ title was a huge satisfaction, but he still hopes to achieve “the last half” of his goal.

« You never know what can happen, and anything can happen until the end as we learned recently. It’s a wonderful feeling to have won the constructor’s championship, we’ve been working on it for five years now and we’re happy that it has paid off. This championship has brought us satisfaction and joy. We missed it by a hair last year, now it’s done. But, as I said, we have only reached 50% of our goal. We hope to fulfill the other 50% this Sunday.»