F1 pundits agree there is no reason for Ferrari to intervene with team orders. Ferrari lost the win in Russia despite having arguably the fastest car.

Despite having arguably the fastest car at the moment, Scuderia Ferrari is now embroiled in a new team orders scandal after repeatedly asking Sebastian Vettel to let Charles Leclerc past him during the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix. Charles, who started on pole, says he had an “agreement” to let Sebastian slipstream him into the lead from third at the start so that Ferrari could lead one-two.

But in an episode that reminded many of Sebastian Vettel’s ‘multi-21’ debacle of 2013, the German refused to comply. However, fans later crowned Vettel ‘driver of the day’ and turned their ire at Ferrari’s race-meddling.

“There’s no reason for Ferrari to intervene in such a way. You can only hurt your own drivers if you put such orders on them,” pundit Christian Danner told RTL. And 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve agreed.

“Sebastian Vettel set his car up for the race and was much faster,” he told Auto Bild. “Now Ferrari has a serious problem.” Villeneuve also shared a similar sentiment with Sky Italia: “They didn’t have to tell Vettel to return the place immediately like that,” he said. “They then spent the rest of the race thinking about how to put Leclerc back in front. Vettel was faster today and deserved to stay ahead.”

Red Bull’s Marko, who until now has backed his former driver to bounce back into top form said the situation is turning grim: “Ferrari has managed to not win with the fastest car,” Marko said. “And although he was the fastest man, they sacrificed Sebastian.”