Red Bull has followed up its protest against Mercedes by reminding the FIA that it is the obligation of the teams to ensure that they comply with the regulations.
Pirelli has justified the test via a contract it has with the FIA which makes provision for 1000kms of extra testing with teams. However that is inevitably trumped by the requirement to obey the FIA’s own regulations.
In a letter sent yesterday by Christian Horner to the FIA – and copied to all the other teams and seen by this blog – the team makes clear how seriously it views the situation.
Horner wrote: “For clarity our protest is not against any third party supplier (including the tyre supplier) as it is the clear obligation of the entrant, irrelevant of any supplier contract, to comply with the Sporting and Technical Regulations, which in this case were clearly breached.
“For any competitor to have the benefit of running a current car with current race drivers with tyres that are to be used in the current World Championship is an enormous and unfair advantage for both performance and reliability and in our opinion totally unacceptable.”
Today Pirelli insisted that most of the Mercedes running was devoted to 2014 tyre development, despite Paul Hembery saying in Monaco last week that testing with a current car would be “pointless.”
Hembery said today that only a small period involved Kevlar belted tyres, similar to those that will be tested in Montreal and potentially raced at Silverstone. However, he insisted that it did not involve a 2013 compound.
Nevertheless rivals agree that, whatever tyres were used, Mercedes would have gained a lot from the test.
Adam Cooper F1 
Is this same Red Bull who allegedly gained “an enormous and unfair advantage for both performance and reliability” by breaking the RRA and in the other teams opinions’ “totally unacceptable” ?
Rivals have no idea what, if anything Mercedes gained from the test. It’s pure speculation and gamesmanship.
They all know exactly what they would gain if they did it. And they understand it better than you or I…
They could only know if they knew exactly what was involved in the test. They don’t so they don’t. How can a team benefit unless they tested other parts or knew what tyres they were testing. If Pirelli is to be believed, Merc didn’t know what compounds they were testing or whether it was a 2013 or 2014 tyres they were testing.
You need all the variables to be able to get reliable data.
If Pirelli is to be believed is a key phrase. They shouldn’t have put themselves in a position where the question has to be asked. And any team will tell you they will learn even with limited knowledge of what tyres they are being given. Remember they were there for 3 days and no other team has had a chance to run its 2013 car. And crucially this as 3 days after a race.
That’s right but what if they know they won’t get much??? Do you really believe they would admit it? I don’t.
When one is given a free opportunity to kick the opposition one will use it to his advantage. I will, won’t you?
Hey Horner! STFU! Everyone gets your side and your point. The endless crying and moaning (quit spending so much time with Vettel) is getting seriously old. Cripes.
Horner is absolutely right this time. Kudos.
I have a hard time for that Horner guy and his usually moanings, although this time he´s absolutely right. Merc drove their 2013 cars for three days, that´s indisputable. IMHO just by that they have an advantage, no matter what/if they knew anything about the tyres.
Adam, one of the most interesting facts I’ve read in your recent blogs was that some of the teams, looking at the data collected at the pre-2013 tyre test, believed that Pirelli had made an error with the LH & RH tyre data … & have since used that info to gain an advantage by swapping them around.
This just goes to show how clever some of these team engineers are at looking at data & seeing a way to go faster. With that in mind, I have no doubt Mercedes could have learned a great deal about the tyres & tyre wear … even if they were provided tyres with random coding & no labels.
Absolutely, they would definitely have learned something.