Red Bull mechanic prepares tires at the Yas Marina racetrack in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Emirates Formula One Grand Prix will take place on Sunday.
To back one driver or not to back one driver: That is the question.
When Formula One crowns its 2010 world champion this weekend in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari will bring clarity to that query and discover whether it was worth suffering the Shakespearian slings and arrows of the F1 media for making Fernando Alonso its title favourite.
At the German Grand Prix in July, Ferrari asked Felipe Massa to move over and allow his teammate Alonso to take the win. With team orders banned in F1, the Italian outfit was fined $100,000, but the result stood.
The extra seven points Alonso earned in Germany may end up being the difference between him and second-placed Mark Webber of Red Bull in the 2010 title fight.
While many in the media skewered Ferrari for what they saw as unsportsmanlike conduct in Germany and some have suggested that an Alonso title won by less than eight points would be tainted, the two-time world champion sees things differently.
"I think winning by seven, one or 25 [points]is the least important thing in my mind now," he said.
"I think there's not anything we can do other than try to finish second or first in the race - that is mathematically our position to win the championship - so it's our goal."
Going into Abu Dhabi, the Spaniard leads the championship with 246 points. Webber has 238, with his Red Bull teammate, Sebastian Vettel, 15 adrift of Alonso in third. Drivers get 25 points for a win. When the green flag drops on Sunday, Alonso's job is clear: A top-2 finish delivers the title no matter what the others do. Vettel can be champion if he wins and Alonso is fourth or worse. A win for Webber also delivers the title as long as Alonso is third or worse.
Although still mathematically in the fight, 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton needs a miracle to steal the crown. He must win and hope that Alonso doesn't score a point, in addition to Webber crossing the line sixth or worse and Vettel finishing no better than third.
As the curtain falls on Ferrari's strategy on Sunday, Red Bull's final act -to maintain the status quo by not choosing one driver over the other - may only bring some of the heartache and the 1,000 natural shocks Shakespeare suggested we must endure in life.
So far, Red Bull's plot seems to have helped Alonso climb to the top of the points standings after he was almost out of contention in the summer. Since the German Grand Prix when Alonso got the nod from Ferrari, a similar arrangement at Red Bull would have Webber leading the standings by nine points heading into the last race.
Because the team refused to make the Australian its leading actor, many in the paddock think that Red Bull's attitude is Vettel or bust. The theory is that the team prefers to lose the drivers' title rather than see Webber and not their wunderkind Vettel, who is the star product of Red Bull's driver program, hoist the outfit's maiden title.
In fact, Red Bull wrote a different script when Vettel led his Australian teammate by 12 points going into July's British Grand Prix where the team brought one new specification and more aerodynamically efficient front wing per driver. When Vettel's broke in practice, the team installed Webber's new front wing on his teammate's car for qualifying and the race.
Vettel qualified on pole, but ended the day seventh after an early flat tire, while Webber took the win. To punctuate his anger with the team's move, Webber got on the radio on the cool down lap and told the team that his command performance was "not bad for a No. 2 driver."
From there, Webber stayed atop the points chase and looked to be Red Bull's best shot at the title as the season went into its final quarter, but the team stuck to its equal treatment guns.
All that seems to be forgotten as the season comes to a close and Webber is simple happy to be in contention for the crown.
"I don't think my odds were too good at the start of the year to be fighting for the championship," he said.
"We could obviously put the icing on the cake on Sunday, which would be nice, but it's been an absolutely incredible year for me personally and obviously for the team."
The big question come Sunday will be whether Vettel will mysteriously slow for an instant and let Webber past if he's leading a Red Bull 1-2 late in the grand prix with Alonso third. While that result would not deliver a world title to the German, the reverse Red Bull 1-2 would hand it to Webber.
"I said last Sunday when I was asked the question and I said that I was going to tease you and if we find ourselves in that situation, you will see what happens on Sunday," Vettel said. "Come on, it's only Thursday today, just three more days. We will see."
As Shakespeare said: "Ay, there's the rub."