"I can understand the public's reaction up to a certain point," he continued, "but the race result did not take away anything away from Rubens' performance, as he ran a fantastic race. People have to understand that Ferrari's main aim is to win both championships. I can see that some people might find that hard to grasp but that is the reasoning behind what happened. We feel this decision puts us in a better position in the fight for the title. FIA knows that Formula 1 is a team sport and accepts that as can be seen from the fact that team orders have always been part of motor sport.

The situation would have been different if Rubens was ahead in the points table, but the reality is that, prior to this race, Michael had 38 points more and that is why we have focussed on him to take the title. Rubens understands this and if he finds himself in a similar situation in a future season then he will be able to fight for the title."