Mercedes and Ferrari in 'secret' Pirelli tyre tests

If they didn't protest I'm sure another team would have, as much as I don't like Red Bull, they have a very valid point.

I'm not sure the FIA can afford to throw Mercedes out of the championship, it would push them away from the sport, and at the moment, that's not what F1 needs.
 
A good governing body would have intervened at a much earlier stage before ending up with this ridiculous situation. Pirelli/Mercedes stated their intention to FIA to have a test, it was held at one of the most heavily used tracks in F1 immediately after a race weekend and now the FIA are saying they didn't have all the facts? Sorry, but if the FIA knew that this test was going to happen surely they should have bloody well made sure that they were there to ensure everything was above board.
 
Here's the FIA sticking the boot in to Pirelli and Mercedes.

Monaco, May 26th

At the beginning of May, the FIA was asked by Pirelli if it was possible for it to carry out some
tyre development testing with a team, using a current car. Within the contract Pirelli has with the
FIA as single supplier, there is provision for them to carry out up to 1000km of testing with any
team – provided every team is offered the opportunity to do so.

Pirelli and Mercedes-AMG were advised by the FIA that such a development test could be
possible if carried out by Pirelli, as opposed to the team that would provide the car and driver,
and that such tests would be conditional upon every team being given the same opportunity to
test in order to ensure full sporting equity.

Following this communication, the FIA received no further information about a possible test from
Pirelli or from Mercedes-AMG. Furthermore, the FIA received no confirmation that all teams had
been given an opportunity to take part in this test.

In addition, with regard to the application of the sport’s rules, including principles of sporting
equity, it should be remembered that the International Sporting Code provides that on the basis
of a report of the stewards of the meeting, or on its own initiative, the prosecuting body of the
FIA may bring a matter before the International Tribunal.

The Tribunal may decide to inflict penalties that would supercede any penalty the stewards of
the meeting may have issued. Such procedure would be followed in pursuance of the FIA
Judicial and Disciplinary Rules.

Matteo Bonciani
F1 Head of Communications & Media Delegate
Click to expand
http://184.106.145.74/f1-championship/f1-2013/f1-2013-06/2013 Monaco GP - SUPER DEF NOTE to the media.pdf

I can't see it ending well for Mercedes.
 
Can't blame FIA for Pirelli and Mercedes not communicating with them properly, the FIA have said in that statement that:

"The FIA recieved no further information about a possible test from Pirelli or Mercedes-AMG. Furthermore, the FIA recieved no confirmation that all teams had been given and oppurtunity to take part in this test."

So it seems the FIA didn't know that the test was going ahead, if they didn't hear back from Pirelli or Mercedes-AMG, they are obviously going to assume nothing came of it,

No one in the F1 paddock apart from Mercedes and Pirelli knew the test was going ahead, everyone only found out two weeks after it took place.

I wonder who let it slip :thinking:
 
sushifiesta it seems from the communication above that they were asked if it were possible, they said it was, then heard no more, it would appear that they were not advised of dates or locations etc.
 
I chose to believe that Horner sneakily intercepted the mail sent to the FIA from Mercedes/Pirelli and burned it in order to sabotage Pirelli to get a more favourable tire supplier for 2014 and remove a potential threat in the 2014 season by causing Mercedes to quit.
 
To me, whether the FIA was informed or not is not the main bone of contention. If Merc used anything newer than the 2010 car, it was illegal and therefore CHEATING! No semantics can change that fact.
 
Well to me this just made F1 more interesting. I hope its nothing more than a slap on the wrist. If they get ejected, Mercedes should threaten the engine supply.
 
siffert_fan said:
To me, whether the FIA was informed or not is not the main bone of contention. If Merc used anything newer than the 2010 car, it was illegal and therefore CHEATING! No semantics can change that fact.
Click to expand

Well Schumacher won the world championship by cheating once. So sometimes the ends justify the means - at least based on FIA history.
 
If Mercedes are found to have broken the rules, I can't even imagine the punishment for the team. You can't have a car that's done a thousand Km of tyre development and track work, more than the rest of the field. It just wouldn't be right. I'm wondering if Merc are found guilty that some sort of fine and points docking (Monaco perhaps) followed by an agreement for all teams to run a test weekend excluding Mercedes at some point in the near future. The exclusion of Mercedes from the championship is to my mind, unthinkable but then stranger things have happenend. The BRDC must be praying to the great chicken in the sky that Hamilton will run at Silverstone.

Well it wouldn't be a season of F1 without some sort of political scandel.
 
For me the main issue is we only have Ross Brawn's word that they did nothing else but test tyres that are not meant for this year but.
  1. I find that very hard to believe, those cars collect data on a continuous basis and how do we know he didn't test some aero parts when there no FIA official monitoring the situation.
  2. Conflicting stories, Merc are saying it was done for tyre safety reasons and Pirelli are saying they were testing tyres for next year even though they don't have a contract for next year
  3. If it was tyres for next year that gives Merc advanced data for next year which is unfair.
  4. If it was done on safety reasons that gives Merc data for Canada which again is bang out of order....
The whole thing stinks to high heaven if you ask me, can you imagine the outrage if it were Ferrari who had carried out the test and the FIA did naff all about it....?

I think a fair penalty would be to ban Mercedes from all three FP's in Canada and have done with it...
 
I remember not that long ago that Whitmarsh was saying that there isn't any value in in-season testing because the wind tunnel is where the real insights come from. If this suggests otherwise then hopefully the RRA and testing agreement will unravel.
 
Mephistopheles said:
I think a fair penalty would be to ban Mercedes from all three FP's in Canada and have done with it...
Click to expand

Don't agree. That would punish Hamilton and Rosberg unfairly. They didn't make this decision. Further it will make it impossible for Mercedes to set up the car for Canada posing a safety risk to their drivers.

Best answer here is to clarify the rules and let it go.
 
How would it be punishing Nico and Lewis unfairly, since they may have benefited from knowledge Mercedes obtained illegally? Would you prefer they give up all points obtained at Monaco?

I also see on Autosport that Pirelli says the testing was "90% about next year". That makes 10% purely about this year.
 

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