Giving up one's car to the team's number one driver was a common practice at the time, Moss said.

"If my car broke, I'd go into the pits and I'd say to the team manager 'I'd like to take over another car,' and he'd bring the car in," he said. "The same way as when I was with Fangio, and he was number one, if it was worked out that he should win, then he would win."

Juan Manuel Fangio was for a while Moss's teammate with Mercedes. In 1956, going into the final race, he led by one point for the title over his teammate, Peter Collins. During the race Fangio had a wheel problem on his Ferrari and was forced to withdraw. When Collins pulled into the pits for a tire change on the 35th lap and was told of Fangio's misfortune he immediately chose to give the Argentinean his own car to allow him to become the first man to win four drivers' titles. There was no controversy in either case.

Moss says the change in attitude is a result of television coverage.

"Television has made the sport turn into a business," he said, "and there's no room for being a gentleman when you're in business."

John Surtees, another former driving champion, said that sponsorship allows teams today to afford two top drivers.

In the past, Surtees said, "with the exception of certain teams, like Mercedes, you had very specific differences in driver abilities."

"There were very obviously number ones and number twos purely by performance," he said.

Today, he said, if a driver, like Hakkinen, had the pole position, got into the first corner first and turned the fastest lap of the race, he should be able to benefit from such an agreement.

Both he and Moss, however, said that the reaction to the McLaren drivers' cooperation might have been different if it had been done, in Moss's words, "more discreetly." Surtees said that had the drivers crossed the finish line just a fraction apart, it "would have created a sensational finish."