Adam Cooper F1

The FIA has now officially confirmed that the International Tribunal hearing regarding Mercedes and Pirelli will take place in Paris on June 20, a date that was expected over the Montreal weekend.

The FIA has also confirmed that Pirelli will be alongside Mercedes in the dock, despite the fact that the original protest was against the team.

An FIA statement today read:

Disciplinary procedure against Mercedes and Pirelli (2013 FIA Formula One World Championship)

On 5 June 2013, further to protests lodged during the 2013 Monaco GP by Red Bull Racing and Ferrari Scuderia Team against cars n°9 and 10 (Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team) for having conducted with Pirelli a three day tyre testing using a 2013 car on 15, 16 and 17 May in Barcelona, the President of the FIA, acting as the FIA Prosecuting Body, sent to the President of the International Tribunal a notification of charges against Pirelli and a notification of charges against Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team.

On 5 June 2013, Pirelli and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team have been convened by the President of the International Tribunal to appear before a judging panel of the International Tribunal.

The FIA added: “The decision of the International Tribunal will be published as soon as possible after the hearing.”

A Canadian GP marshal died on Sunday evening after being hit by a tow truck that was carrying the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez back to the pits.

An FIA statement said:  “The recovery vehicle had lifted the car to return it to the pits and while doing this the worker dropped his radio and attempted to pick it up. As he did this, he stumbled and was hit and run over by the recovery vehicle.

“The worker was transported via helicopter to Sacre-Coeur Hospital where he was treated by the traumatology department of Dr Ronald Denis, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Dr Jacques Bouchard, Chief Medical Officer of the Grand Prix. Unfortunately, the worker succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.”

A return to limited in-season testing took a step closer on Saturday when the FIA met with the team managers to fine tune the details.

The plans were discussed in Monaco by the bosses of the six teams in the ‘Strategy Group,’ compromising Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Lotus and Williams. The next step is formal approval by the World Motor Sport Council later this month.

The intention is to have eight days of testing in 2014, split over four two-day sessions. All will take place on the Wednesday/Thursday after a race weekend. No venues have been confirmed as the calendar has not yet been finalised, but likely candidates include Barcelona, Hockenheim, Hungary and Spa.

As part of the arrangement teams will give up aero testing and most of the promotional/filming days that they current undertake, probably leaving just two of the latter.

There are some reservations about the new system, with the smaller teams concerned that their crews will now have to stay an extra five days at those venues, while larger teams have more capacity to fly in extra staff to assist with night shifts. Most teams will also now have to prepare a separate test car and bring it to the track while sending the race cars home.

The lack of aero tests and filming days will make up for some of the difficulties, at least for the teams that have used their full allocation. Teams regard even a 100km filming day as an ‘event’ that require extensive preparation and organisation, and typically they have been running 12 aero and filming events. Adding four tests to a race weekend makes the logistics less complicated.

Nico Rosberg’s pole streak was ended in Montreal when he had to settle for fourth, but only after radio problems badly compromised his session.

Rosberg was unable to get any information from the team and ultimately didn’t manage to do a time at the end due to a misunderstanding.

“My excuse today is I didn’t have my radio working, except for a very short space on the straight,” said Rosberg. “But the team didn’t know that, so it was more or less like having no radio. So I had no information, and that made it really difficult with these conditions.

“I didn’t have KERS working, because I didn’t have the right setting, I didn’t have brake temperatures up, and all these things. So that was my problem today. Actually fourth place is good, considering the circumstances. I was expecting a lot worse, because I didn’t even manage to do a lap in the end.

“If it would have been a normal, dry qualifying then it’s not that important, because you can tell me in the garage what I need to do, and it’s OK. Of course, it’s not ideal, but it would have been more or less OK. But with these conditions you just need so much information.

“Even in the end I was told two laps in the garage, and it turned out it was three laps that I had [left]. By the time I got to the end of my second I thought it was finished, and that was a very poor lap, and then starting the third I was just stuck on the gearbox of the Lotus [Raikkonen]. So I completely wasted that run and didn’t get a lap time in.”

He added: “I’m saying all my excuses for the day, but at the same time Lewis did a great job, so it would have been diffcult to beat Lewis anyways today.”

Rosberg implied that he was hoping for a wet race, given that the team still has its tyres issues.

“The car is really good in the wet, as in the dry, on one lap. In the wet it’s good even for a longer run, in the dry a longer run is still our weakness, tyre degradation. There are other teams that are stronger than us for sure. We need to manage it as best as possible for us and make the most of it, starting position wise it’s looking great, so maybe we can use that to our advantage, and finish well.”

Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo have both been penalised two places on the grid for the Canadian GP.

In the end they lose only one place as Kimi’s offence was deemed to have happened first, so by the time the grid is shuffled he actually gains one back from Ricciardo’s penalty and vice versa!

They were deemed to have not started from the fast lane in the pits when Q2 was resumed following the red flag for Felipe Massa’s accident. The 15 remaining cars all waited at the end of the pitlane with several drivers taking the ‘inside’ line and passing others.

Raikkonen jumped from fourth in the queue to second, and Ricciardo from sixth to fourth. No action was taken against Pastor Maldonado, Jean-Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez, none of whom gained places. In fact Pastor managed to lose one…

The grid now reads 9th HUL, 10th RAI, 11th RIC, 12th PER.

Valtteri Bottas stunned the Montreal pitlane by qualifying a superb third for the Canadian GP, having been fast throughout the damp session.

The Finn was fourth in both Q1 and Q2 as the weather hid the usual deficiencies of his Williams.

“Of course it means a lot,” said Bottas. “It’s way more up in the grid than what we really could ever imagine. It’s been so difficult, the first six races for us and it will be a nice boost for the team. We really got everything quite right today.

“I don’t think we expected to be on the first or second row. I think everyone in our team was hoping for rain because there’s always a chance if you get the timing right, get everything right, you can maybe finish a bit higher than where the car is sometimes. But yes, the race is tomorrow. If it’s dry, for sure it’s going to be difficult, it’s not going to be easy, so let’s see.”

Inevitably he’s hoping for more rain on Sunday.

“I think the fact is in the dry the car doesn’t belong to P3 at the moment, so yeah, of course some rain would help us, like it did in the qualifying. Because I think we found, for the Inter tyres especially, a quite good way of how to really work the tyre, the right temperatures and everything – so I hope so.”

Felipe Massa will start the Canadian GP in 16th place after crashing out of the damp Q2 session.

It was the Ferrari driver’s third major accident in recent weeks after the two in Monaco, albeit not quite as spectacular as its predecessors.

“I didn’t see the video yet, but people tell me I braked over the white line,” said Massa. “Maybe it’s possible, because when I braked I just went sideways straight away. I’m really disappointed with what happened. It’s like a movie you know, three things happened straight away like that. I’m very disappointed, not happy, but the race is tomorrow, so we need to concentrate on tomorrow, and try to do a good race tomorrow.

“We don’t gain anything by going to the past, we need to go to the present and the future. It’s true that it’s not nice to start in the back, but it’s also true that this is a race, this is a track that every year many things happen during the race, so we need to concentrate on that and try to do a good race tomorrow.”

Massa said he had suffered no physical after effects.

“Physically it’s fine, this crash was nothing compared to Monaco, much slower. The crash I had here is more… psychological than physical! So we have to forget about that and start a different thing. I think the pace was OK today, the biggest problem was the evolution. When it was very wet it was not easy, when it was a dry line it was OK for us. We’ll see how the conditions are going to be tomorrow.”

Christian Horner reiterated today that Red Bull firmly believes that it was the responsibility of Mercedes to obey the FIA’s rules related to testing.

Horner said he trusted that the FIA tribunal would come to the correct conclusion.

“Our feelings were fairly clear because we raised a protest about it in Monaco,” said Horner. “So we believe that it is the responsibility of the entrant to comply with the regulations, so when it came to light that a test with a current car had taken place, our interpretation of the regulations is that that was in clear breach of them, and therefore we raised a protest prior to the race for it to be dealt with as an issues by the FIA.

“It’s really an issue between the team and the FIA. Obviously Pirelli have asked several teams to test, ourselves included, but we have declined to do so because we felt that it wasn’t in line with the regulations, certainly with a current car. That’s the situation.

“It’s gone to the Tribunal and we trust in the FIA to make the appropriate decisions regarding it. I think the important thing is that there needs to be absolute clarity moving forward in terms of what you can do and what you can’t do going forward, you know, what is testing and what isn’t testing. I think that’s more crucial than anything, it is to be fully resolved.”

Horner reiterated that any team would learn a lot running a 2013 car, even in a tyre test.

“When you’re not allowed to test, when you have limited mileage, when the rules are written as they are, when you run a current car of course fthe way that Formula One is, with the way that the amount of technology and with the amount of data analysis there is, you’re always learning. Whether it be reliability, whether it be endurance, whether it be performance.

“So, of course, even if you’re testing a component for a supplier, you’re learning. I think Formula One has moved an awfully long way over the last few years to ensure fairness and equality to all of the entrants. I think that if a team does carry out 1000km of additional testing with a current car, you’re going to learn something.”

Pirelli boss Paul Hembery failed to appear at the FIA Friday Press Conference today after taking legal advice from company lawyers, thus avoiding a session which focussed totally on the test controversy.

He did appear later at Pirelli’s own press gathering, under controlled conditions, with no questions allowed regarding the upcoming case. However, inevitably the conversation did drift towards the subject.

“We’re going to a tribunal,” he said of the silence. “And if ever you’re going to a tribunal any lawyer will tell you at that point you have a formal process to follow, which we’re happy to follow, we’re supportive and following. We’ll speak about everything at the tribunal, that’s the point of a tribunal.”

Asked if he was looking forward to it, he said: “Of course we are. We want to be able to demonstrate our point of view, our situation. It’s not nice sometimes to hear things that you know are maybe quite wide of the mark. I guess when you’re quiet, then people can also use their imagination.

“The point of a tribunal, a well run tribunal I’m sure it will be because the FIA has put in a new process, is to look at all the data, and all the facts. There a lot of context that needs to be taken into account.”

He was also asked if his position was under threat from the Pirelli board: “They’re very happy, they’ve got no worries.”