Complaints after Merc conduct 1000km 'secret' test
Monday 27 May 2013 09:33, UK
Red Bull and Ferrari have launched protests at the Monaco Grand Prix after it emerged that Mercedes conducted a secret tyre test after the Spanish GP.
Speaking earlier, Damon Hill said the Mercedes view is that the safety aspect should preclude any protest from rivals. "It is astonishing that you can run a Formula 1 car and it doesn't get out until now - apparently it has only been discovered or made clear last night," Hill said. "Some teams have reacted badly to that, I have spoken to (Mercedes non-executive chairman) Niki Lauda and he assures me that they have okayed it with the FIA and the reason it is ok is because the safety regulations overrule the sporting regulations. "He told me that the teams knew about it and they gave their permission, but I think there may be a difference between what other people are saying about that and what he told me. "There's been a rule and understanding for a long time now that there's no testing during the season and you can't allow one team to have an advantage - that's not a level playing field. "It would be very unusual. I can't imagine that teams would be too happy allowing a team that they're racing against to be the team doing development work on tyres mid-season. "But if there is a safety issue, which seems to be the insinuation, then somebody has to do the testing. It just looks like Mercedes might have got in there first. Pirelli insist there is nothing illegal about what Mercedes have done in conducting a behind-closed-doors test. "As per our FIA contract, we can ask teams to do 1,000 kilometres of tyre testing. It's something that's common in all FIA contract including the World Rally Championship," Hembery told Martin Brundle on the grid ahead of the race. "We asked the teams if they were interested. Some said yes, some said no." Hembery also denied that Mercedes had gained an advantage, adding: "They don't know what they're testing. Nothing's relevant for this year, it's all future stuff."
