The furore which erupted after last weekend's race at Hockenheim has marred by what should've been a derserving victory by the Ferrari team.

At the heart of the matter is the contentious issue of team orders. A team order is when a driver is asked to move over and allow his team mate to overtake. It is usually issued when one driver is clearly way ahead on points for the Driver's Championship, thus allowing him to further cement his lead.

To be fair, such a big brouhaha wouldn't have resulted had the Ferrari drivers been racing down in say, 8th and 9th places. What set off the storm was the fact that the winning driver was selected from the pit lane. Felipe Massa, leading his team mate, was ordered to move aside to allow Fernando Alonso to take the lead. To fans, it just wasn't racing. 

It's true that fans just want to see the fastest driver who has the best pit stop strategy and makes the least number of errors, win. But in wanting to see this ideal fulfilled, perhaps fans are missing the bigger picture.  

Formula One is a team sport.

All drivers are out to win championships, but no matter how integral they are, they will always remain a part of a bigger team. As David Coulthard put it, Lance Armstrong doesn't win the Tour de France all by himself. He's got team mates riding in support of his bid to win.

Unless Formula One switches to a one-driver-per-team format, team orders are going to be inevitable. It may take place in the form of a driver who runs wide at a corner or brakes a bit early.

Or as we witnessed, it could be as simple as a race engineer informing a driver that his team mate is faster than him...