Monaco Grand Prix 2013, Monte Carlo - Race 6/19
- Thread starter Duke
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Oh Dear, Mercerelli get further in the ****....
"Lotus and Force India have claimed they received no direct invitation from Pirelli to complete a tyre test amid the controversy over Mercedes' 'secret' running in Barcelona."
http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1...directly-approached-about-chance-to-tyre-test
"Lotus and Force India have claimed they received no direct invitation from Pirelli to complete a tyre test amid the controversy over Mercedes' 'secret' running in Barcelona."
http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1...directly-approached-about-chance-to-tyre-test
Soldato
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Yes. All the top teams were asked before the season if they would be willing to help Pirelli with midseason testing if required. Lotus, FI and Mercedes all said yes, but only Mercedes got the invitation. Red Bull refused to assist, and are now whining about Mercedes getting an opportunity that they turned down.
Yeah I gather that from before, it seems odd that Pirelli did ask all the teams yet some have either not got the message or ignored it and now kicking up a fuss. If Pirelli can demonstrate they contacted them all, the other teams have nothing to complain about - although there is a query over them using the 2013 car?
Soldato
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Why would Mercedes be in trouble for that? Its not their job to contact all the teams to make sure Pirelli have asked all of them to participate
The only things Mercedes could possibly be in trouble about are using Nico/Lewis to drive, and using the 2013 car for the test. I haven't seen any confirmation of who was driving and from what I understand there is a clause in Pirelli's contract that allows for a 1000km test with current cars if they deem it to be necessary. I'm not even sure if there is any rule preventing current drivers from testing.
As far as i can see some teams have missed the boat and are now whining about it
Who was or wasn't contacted by whom and when is of no importance.
What this is about is Mercedes using a 2013 car for the test. If it was clear cut illegal then it would have been stopped when it happened. The fact is, its not clear cut, hence the ongoing saga where the FIA have to patch up yet another loophole in their regulations.
Bob Firnley (sp?) mentioned something about this in the Team Principles press conference. A structured test at a track after a GP weekend with forced young drivers and Pirelli testing would be ideal. Although Pirelli want consistency, so maybe they allow race drivers on unmarked tyres for the Pirelli day, and young drivers only for the other 2?
Either way, at the moment the testing ban is doing more harm than good.
What this is about is Mercedes using a 2013 car for the test. If it was clear cut illegal then it would have been stopped when it happened. The fact is, its not clear cut, hence the ongoing saga where the FIA have to patch up yet another loophole in their regulations.
Bob Firnley (sp?) mentioned something about this in the Team Principles press conference. A structured test at a track after a GP weekend with forced young drivers and Pirelli testing would be ideal. Although Pirelli want consistency, so maybe they allow race drivers on unmarked tyres for the Pirelli day, and young drivers only for the other 2?
Either way, at the moment the testing ban is doing more harm than good.
Soldato
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Going by past form you'd guess what has happened here is the FIA have been caught with their pants down by Brawn/Merc exploiting some loophole in the rules and are now trying to backtrack/deflect the blame.
It was hardly a cloak and dagger test, they did it straight after the last GP so they all knew full well what was happening, I think one of the other 10 teams would have noticed Merc were not packing away very quickly!
Can imagine it might end up with a couple of big fines and maybe offering all the other teams a tyre test and that will be it. Anything larger (bans, point deductions) and the FIA will probably open themselves up to further scrutiny in a proper courtcase.
It was hardly a cloak and dagger test, they did it straight after the last GP so they all knew full well what was happening, I think one of the other 10 teams would have noticed Merc were not packing away very quickly!
Can imagine it might end up with a couple of big fines and maybe offering all the other teams a tyre test and that will be it. Anything larger (bans, point deductions) and the FIA will probably open themselves up to further scrutiny in a proper courtcase.
I think Coulthard's comment about it being such a shame the pace had to be dropped to preserve tyres was a valid one. I understand there needs to be a technical element to the racing, but if you get it right, you should be able to thrash everything to the limit, not stuck at 80% of your potential (random made up stat!).
This is exactly what I think has happened.
and thus all the other teams complaining about it are butthurt that they didn't think of it first
Yeah I agree but it's been this way for 3 years and Coulthard said nothing about it until his team looked in trouble. As soon as the first test sessions on pirelli were completed years ago, webber said it was no longer pushing the car just the tyre wear to a pre determined race pace.
Yet coulthard didn't care.
MS last year mentioned how ridiculous tyre wear was and how it was a joke.
This forum laughed at him. Now all of a sudden it's this big new issue that the cars are running to a schedule rather than as fast as possible. DC is like a portion of this forum in that when their driver was doing ok he was happy to ignore it.
Not just this forum. Pretty much all of the motorsport press, bloggers, fansites, forums....ah well. I'm sure he's not unduly bothered by the myopic opinions held by much of motorsport fandom
Didn't see the race yet. Worth watching the highlights?
Not just this forum. Pretty much all of the motorsport press, bloggers, fansites, forums....ah well. I'm sure he's not unduly bothered by the myopic opinions held by much of motorsport fandom
Didn't see the race yet. Worth watching the highlights?
Not worth watching at all in my opinion
I'm at a stage now if I'm home I watch if I miss it so what 
I have just been reading through the Bahrain 2012 thread where the tyres got a big discussion afterwards, funny to see the players on this forum that have changed their tune
Last few pages from post 1084
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18393418&highlight=schumacher&page=14
Or the wash up on tyres from Bahrain
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/04/27/f1-fix-flawed-rules-pirelli-tyres/
Other drivers have made this point. In his column for Sky Martin Brundle noted: “I was talking with two F1 drivers, a world champion and a multiple race winner, and they had very similar concerns to Michael in that they can’t push the cars anywhere near their limits. ‘Physically my granny could drive the race’ quipped one to underline how far away from the limits they are.”
according to this article lauda has said an fia delegate was sent to the tyre test, and it had been cleared by there lawyers before hand. Are we about to see more fia bipolar disorder.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/fia-not-ruling-out-penalties-after-secret-test/
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/fia-not-ruling-out-penalties-after-secret-test/
Soldato
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More evidence for the 'Pirelli not being very organised and the other teams being grumpy about missing out on the test' theory
Soldato
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The article says that Charlie whiting passed the query on to some lawyers for the FIA and they gave the green light. It wasn't just Charlie going "yup, sounds good" after reading the first paragraph