Christian Horner revealed during a Team Principals press conference that Red Bull were approached to take part in the Pirelli tyre tests in Barcelona but the team refused, fearing that it would breach Formula One FIA regulations.
This will a key aspect when the Pirelli testgate saga goes to the FIA International Tribunal as the FIA has already said that Pirelli should have invited all other teams to carry out tyre test with Pirelli.
Lotus and Force India both confirmed that they had not been approached by Pirelli, but Horner’s revelation adds new perspective to the ong-going saga.
“We believe it is the responsibility of the entrant to comply with the regulations, so when it came to light that a test with the current car had taken place, our interpretation of the rules was that that was in clear breach of them. Therefore we raised a protest prior to the race for it to be dealt with by the FIA,” said Horner during a very tense press conference of the Team Principals following Friday’s second practice session in Canada.
“It is really an issue between the team and the FIA and obviously Pirelli have asked several teams to test – ourselves included – but we have declined to do so as we felt it wasn’t in line with the regulations, certainly with the current car. So that is the situation, it has gone to the tribunal and we trust the FIA to make the appropriate decision regarding it.”
“The important thing is that there needs to be absolute clarity in what you can do and what you can’t do, what I testing and what isn’t testing and I think that that is more crucial than anything to be fully resolved.”
Mercedes continue to insist that they did not learn anything from the test and merely assisted Pirelli. Horner however, is steadfast in his few that the extra mileage the Mercedes F1 team got out of the testing will have been of great benefit to the team.
“I think that whenever you have limited testing with the rules written as they are, then when you run a current car with the amount of technology and the amount of data analysis there is then you are always learning – whether it is reliability, whether it be endurance, whether it be performance,” he said.
“So of course even if you are testing a component for another supplier you are learning. Formula 1 has moved an awfully long way over the last few years to ensure fairness and equality to all of the entrants and I think if a team does carry out an extra 1000km with a current car then you are going to learn something.”
Horner was also unimpressed with the fact that the F1 tyre test was carried out in secret saying, “I think the lack of transparency has been disappointing. If a supplier has issues then they obviously have to deal with them, but if all entrants are supposedly equal, I think it is important that that information is made perfectly clear.”
Mercedes will face the FIA International Tribunal later this month with Ross Brawn seeming very confident and sure that the team are in the clear.
