Johnny Herbert: Stop meddling in team orders and let F1 drivers race

But playing devil’s advocate you can understand why Ferrari did what they did. Their likely champion is Seb and they have to do everything in their powers in that quest.

And also Kimi was struggling in the early part of that race to get his tyres to work quite as he would have liked.

So what does the Iceman do in response? There’s clearly some very big cracks in that icey demeanour and his relationship with the team but all he can do is do what he did in Monaco, come out with a pole position, get his head down and take the fight to his teammate. He has to beat Seb plain and simple.

We’ve talked about team orders from race two of this season onwards and it’s abundantly clear it’s going to be a theme that runs and runs in the current season.

If I was in charge, I’d just let the drivers race, let them decide position on the track and stop the interference. It’s for the good of the sport.

Let’s say it’s a level playing field this weekend, my money would be on Valtteri Bottas to win the Canadian Grand Prix, and that’s nothing to do with the dire race that Lewis Hamilton had in Monaco.

That was clearly a different issue in the car, which has yet to be fully explained, and I don’t think too much blame can be apportioned on the driver.

But much like with Russia, I feel Montreal is a track that plays naturally to Valtteri’ strengths, it’s a place where he’s got good feel and that’s imperative as a racing driver.

In addition, such are the nuances of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve that Mercedes shouldn’t experience the tyre issues they’ve encountered at some of the races this season.

Toto Wolff has come out with the line that Ferrari are now the favourites for the title and he’s probably right but it’s a clever ploy to downplay Mercedes’ fortunes.

They’re by no means done with and Ferrari are certainly not dominant – we’ve seen the championship ebb and flow already this season – but what he’s done is taken the pressure off those back in the factory, the race team and the drivers themselves. It’s a clever tactic.

He won’t have given up but he knows the team need to attain Ferrari-esque levels of consistency, which is currently the Maranello outfit’s greatest asset.