Ferrari is confident that the World Motor Sport Council will understand its controversial actions at Hockenheim after it decided not to appeal against the $100,000 fine imposed on it by race stewards.

The Italian squad was engulfed in a team orders controversy after finishing 1-2 in Sunday’s race after Felipe Massa let team-mate Fernando Alonso through to win the race with 18 laps remaining.

Ferrari denied afterwards that it had given Massa any instruction to cede the position, saying that it had simply told him that his team-mate was faster and that the Brazilian took the decision to move aside in the interests of the team.

Nevertheless the radio message was widely interpreted as a coded team order and race stewards later judged that it had broken Article 39.1 of the sporting regulations forbidding team orders that interfere with the race result – while also referring the case to the FIA’s WMSC for further consideration.

On Sunday evening Ferrari confirmed that, in the interests of the sport, it would not be contesting the fine but added that it had faith that the FIA would assess the case in the right manner.

“As for the Stewards’ decision, given after the race, in the interests of the sport, we have decided not to go through a procedure of appealing against it, confident that the World Council will know how to evaluate the overall facts correctly,” team principal Stefano Domenicali said in a statement.

After Sunday’s race Domenicali, both drivers, Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley and Ferrari team manager Massimo Rivola were all summoned to see the race stewards to explain the situation.

Later Domenicali was asked if he would have done anything differently during the course of the race, to which he replied: “Honestly, a way to handle it better? I don't think so.

“I think that the situation started really from the fact that we wanted to make sure that we shouldn’t have any difficult situation between our drivers.

“This is what we don’t want because we want to have the team’s best interests [put first].”