The International Tribunal announced today that Mercedes will be suspended from the upcoming Young Drivers Test in Silverstone and handed both the team and Pirelli a reprimand for their parts in the Testgate saga.

Following a 7 hour hearing on Thursday and a morning of deliberating on the verdict it was announced that both parties were guilty and were being punished for contravening sporting regulations.

The panel decided that Mercedes did act in breach of Article 22.4 of the sporting regulations which forbids any in-season testing with a current car and ruled that they “did maintain some material advantage” which “at least potentially, gave it an unfair sporting advantage.

Both Mercedes and Pirelli were also found to be in breach of Articles 1 and 151 of the International Sporting Code which covers cases of bringing the sport into disrepute.

One would expect a rather hefty punishment for such serious breaches of regulations but mitigating factors came into play. The panel found that there was no intention by either Pirelli or Mercedes to gain “any unfair sporting advantage”. They also found that neither Pirelli nor Mercedes acted in bad faith. Further they found that Pirelli and Mercedes “disclosed to the FIA at least the essence of what they intended to do in relation to the test and attempted to obtain permission for it; and Mercedes had no reason to believe that approval had not been given”. Lastly that the actions of Charlie Whiting, who had indicated the test would be permissible, were “taken in good faith and with the intention of assisting the parties and consistent with sporting fairness”.

The end result? A slap on the wrist really. The panel chose to hand down the punishment suggested by Mercedes themselves during the hearing.

Let’s take a look at what this Testgate “punishment” really means. There is absolutely no doubt that Mercedes got off very lightly when one considers the rules they are said to have breached.

The first question is around the reprimand. I’d really like to know what a reprimand really is because the FIA seems to hand out a great deal of them. As far as I know a reprimand is something along the lines of, “That was very naughty boys! Bad, bad behaviour!”.

If that’s the punishment for breaching F1 regulations, why would any teams bother adhering to rules in future?

What is really perplexing though is the young driver test suspension which the panel handed down in order to place the other teams “in a similar position to that in which Mercedes is in”. Really? A similar position? How is a 3 day test with senior drivers, on a circuit you have all to yourself in any way similar to a 3 day test with rookie drivers on a circuit with 9 other teams?

The real losers here are the young drivers who will now no longer be able to take part in the F1 test they have no doubt been dreaming about for the last couple of months. Sam Bird, who would have driven in the young driver test for Mercedes is the guy who’s really getting punished at the end of the day. A real pity that.

If this is the punishment, then one has to believe that it is entirely farcical. A big show from the FIA so that they are able to say that they did in fact hand down a punishment. The FIA were in the wrong here in the first place since they really did allow the test as the evidence showed. They
would of course never put their hands up and say they were in the wrong so it seems like they did the best they could and slapped Merc on the wrist. What they didn’t think about, clearly, is the young driver getting the short end of the stick.

Ferrari and Red Bull, who raised the Testgate protest to start off with, are bound to be pretty darn unhappy about things. While Red Bull is refraining from getting into commenting about their thoughts on the verdict, Ferrari have already voiced their discontent with the verdict through their anonymous ‘Horse Whisperer’ column saying that it is “somewhat perplexing to say the least to see that the guilty party can get away virtually scot free for having derived an unfair sporting advantage.”

The column went on to say, “Don’t tell me that testing for three days on your own at the Catalunya circuit is the same as doing so with nine other teams at Silverstone with a host of young hopefuls at the wheel, in an area where the weather can still be changeable even in the height of summer.”

“And what if this whole incident had taken place after the young driver test, what would have been the penalty then? Would they have been forbidden from holding an end of year dinner?”

Clearly the Maranello team are not happy with the outcome.

On the flip side, this is not the first time that a team has gotten off with a slap on the wrist following breaches in regulations. And it most certainly won’t be the last. Adrian Newey is the master at that game. Mercedes saw a loophole, and took it. Well played, I suppose. It seems that this is the way of Formula One. This time Testgate, next time Turbogate?

What are your thoughts on the Testgate verdict? Do you think it’s fair? Let us know in the comments section below.