Ferrari rears up, Red Bull accepts the penalty imposed on Mercedes

The FIA International Tribunal has delivered its verdict: for the tests conducted in Barcelona, Pirelli and Mercedes have been reprimanded, and the German team has been banned from young driver tests. For its part, the FIA intends to learn from this episode, in which it shares some responsibility due to its shortcomings.

A rather magnanimous judgment which, however, does not have unanimous support, particularly from Ferrari. Speaking through its column The Horse Whisperer, the Italian team seems indeed not to have digested the clemency of the FIA International Tribunal: « Today we learned that even if someone is guilty, and in this case, it is an indisputable and verified fact, there is always a way to get out of it. It suffices for someone to suggest to the judges what penalty should be imposed and, even better, to make it look like a slap on the wrist. »

Indeed, on the evening of the hearings, Paul Harris, Mercedes’ lawyer in this case, had deemed that the ban on participating in the young driver tests at Silverstone would be an adequate sanction. If the FIA’s International Tribunal seems to have joined his opinion, Ferrari believes that the team from Brackley is getting off lightly: « It is disconcerting, to say the least, to see those found guilty virtually going unpunished for gaining “an unfair sporting advantage”. Don’t tell me that conducting your own tests at the Circuit de Catalunya is the same as testing with nine other teams at Silverstone with a host of young hopefuls at the wheel, in a place where the weather can be very variable even in the heart of summer. And if all this had happened after the young driver tests? What would the sanction have been? Would they have been banned from attending the end-of-year banquet? »

And the one who whispers in the Horse’s ear – Cabré? – to add: « The way things are evolving right now in Formula 1 is becoming tiresome: you make a mistake, you run with illegal components, you’re simply told to change it for the next race. It just reminds the Whisperer that if he ever finds himself leading a Formula 1 team in the near future and has a difficult start to the season, then all he will have to do is arrange a little test weekend at the right time and maybe later have to forgo a testing session later in the season. »

The Horse Whisperer, however, does not forget that Mercedes’ defense partly rested on the fact that Scuderia Ferrari had also conducted tests for Pirelli with a two-year-old car that the German team deemed significant with respect to the current regulations: « To all those who chatter about transparency and credibility, the Whisperer wishes to remind that the rules are clear: you cannot conduct tests with a car from the current year. With those at least two years old, you can drive whenever you want, wherever you want, with whichever driver you want, dressed as you want, and inviting whoever you want. »

It should be noted, however, that Ferrari’s management, being cautious, has not officially commented on the FIA International Tribunal’s deliberations, merely loosening the reins for its “commentator,” while specifying in bold at the beginning of the article that he is not speaking on behalf of Ferrari but of its fans: « Ferrari has never been in the habit of commenting on verdicts, however, as you all know, the Horse Whisperer is a free spirit who captures the mood of millions of fans.

For its part, Red Bull is content to take into account the Tribunal’s decision, even though, as in the column published on Ferrari’s website, the Austrian team now seems to know what to expect: “The Tribunal was presented with all the facts in the fairest manner and it made its decision,” comments Christian Horner in the pages of Autosport. “We raised a protest because we wanted clarifications on what we were allowed to do in terms of testing during the season with a current car, as we thought it was a violation of the regulations.”

However, just like the Horse Whisperer, the Red Bull team director doubts that the penalty imposed on Mercedes will truly penalize the German team: « It is always better to test with race drivers than with test drivers, however, it is not up to us to decide [the sanctions]. It was up to the Tribunal to decide, and they have made their decision. »