Bernie Ecclestone admits a discussion on Formula 1’s team order regulations is needed in wake of the controversy caused by Ferrari at Hockenheim, with the commercial supremo in favour of allowing teams to manage their cars as they see fit.

Ferrari’s apparent coded message to Felipe Massa at Hockenheim has re-opened the debate about team orders in the sport, with several team bosses having suggested the incident has done fresh damage to F1’s image.

Article 39.1 which profits team orders that interfere with the race result was inserted into the sporting regulations by the FIA in 2002 following that year’s Austrian Grand Prix when Ferrari ordered Rubens Barrichello to make way for Michael Schumacher to win the race.

Ferrari looks set to appear before the governing body’s World Motor Sport Council but Ecclestone - who sits on the WMSC - when asked if, as some pundits have suggested, the regulation should be written out of the rulebook, said it was his opinion that teams should be able to do as they like.

"I don't know, we'll have to see. It's something that needs to be discussed," he was quoted as saying by the Press Association.

"Nobody should interfere as to how they run their team.

"But of course if they do something that's dangerous then obviously they're going to be in trouble, otherwise get on with it."

Former McLaren and Red Bull driver turned pundit David Coulthard has been one leading F1 figure to call on the team orders rules to be scrapped, and Ecclestone admitted given that the image of ‘a team’ is a strong one in F1 then it should be the prerogative of the individual squad how it executes its race strategy.

"I must confess I would agree with anyone who thinks that," said Ecclestone.

"We make people call it a team, we say it's got be a team.

"All the cars have to be exactly the same, the drivers wear the same overalls, so everybody has to look like a team - a team of people that are racing.