Hakkinen: "Forget about team orders, concentrate on the team winning"

Following another dominant Mercedes display in China, Mika Hakkinen believes Ferrari need to start focusing on winning races and beating their opponents rather than their inter-team battles between Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes secured a third consecutive one-two, the first time since 1992 and Williams but Ferrari have caught the headlines for their team orders. In Australia Leclerc was ordered to stay behind Vettel despite having more pace and in China, the German was allowed to pass his new teammate. The Monegasque went on to finish fifth whilst Vettel was unable to catch the Mercedes and finished third.

Following the weekend’s events Hakkinen feels Ferrari should focus on beating their rivals rather than team orders.

“When you have a team as strong as Mercedes to beat there is no point playing games; Ferrari needs to stop focussing on themselves and start concentrating on beating the competition,” Hakkinen said in an interview on Fi.com.