McLAREN boss Martin Whitmarsh has waded into the Red Bull row by insisting it would never happen in his team.
Red Bull have been rocked by an inter-team bust-up after Sebastian Vettel ignored orders not to overtake Mark Webber to win last Sunday’s Malaysia n Grand Prix.
Webber was furious and the German was forced to make a grovelling apology and now team boss Christian Horner is frantically trying to resolve the problem.
But Whitmarsh insists that would not be a problem for McLaren as they encourage their drivers to compete -- even to their cost, as it denied them the chance to win the 2007 drivers’ championship.
He said: “You cannot accept drivers not taking team orders. The team is bigger than any driver and they have got to respect that.
“It is very serious affair if you tell a driver to do something and he doesn’t do it and it could also be a breach of his contract.
“In terms of how you treat your drivers. We always try to treat them fair and openly and they know where we stand.
“We are run to a situation where we want both our drivers to win if they are within a chance of doing so.
“That has created some uncomfortable moments with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in the past.
“When you are the team principal and you see drivers making contact you get people asking you what you are going to do.
“But I always say ‘let it run’ and you know if it goes wrong you have to be prepared to say ‘I’m the banana. I got it wrong.
“I don’t want to criticise any team who does things differently because in 2007, we could have won the championship if we favoured either of our drivers.
“But for me, if we sat in an office in Woking and decided who was going to be champion for 2007, it doesn’t feel right.
“Of course I am disappointed that it was a world championship which we gave away but I also feel that we did the right thing.
“I remember talking to both drivers before the race and said that if they wanted to win the world championship, then they to be able to look themselves in the mirror and say ‘I won it’ rather than ‘I was given it’.
“Other teams take a different views and have their own priorities on how they want to run, but we are a driver-centric team.
“If I was a racing driver, I would find it very difficult, doing something as dangerous and demanding as that, knowing that I could have my opportunity taken away.”
Whitmarsh admits Horner now has a difficult job trying to restore the harmony in his team.
He also says that had Vettel not been a three-time world champion then he could have been shown the door and warns against dishing out a too severe punishment.
He added: “That is the dilemma of managing these superstars. You cannot do it by discipline. You have to do it through trust.
“I’ve had it before a race where we have talked about what could happen and I have always told the driver that it is his decision.
“Generally, if you give the driver the facts and make the request, then they will accept the decision.
“You can do it that way but you cannot manage these guys by discipline or by threat of broken contract — unless you are seriously exasperated.”
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