Ever since the dawn of the Pirelli era in Formula 1, tyre management has been more of wizardry than science. Just when a team seemed to have figured out how the tyres perform, Pirelli brings out a new iteration or the tyre performs in ways no one could predict. There have been races where the harder of the available tyres not only lasted longer but was significantly faster than the softer tyres. There have been races where one team was able to run their cars for over 20 laps on a set of tyres while another team struggled to run 10.
Just when all the teams were struggling to decipher the strange behaviour of tyres, Christmas came early for Mercedes, a team that was invited to participate in tyre tests by Pirelli. When the rules clearly state that teams are not allowed to do tests during the season, how did Mercedes manage it?
In April, Ferrari was involved in a Pirelli tyre test in Barcelona in April. But, FIA closed the case saying there was no breach of regulation since the Italian team used 2011 cars instead of 2013.
The main reason why the testing came into prominence was that while 2013 has been a better season so far than 2012, Mercedes was still haunted by tyre trouble—acute tyre wear and failure. Ever since the tests, Mercedes seems free of tyre issues.
While Mercedes had broken article 22.4 of the sporting regulations by running an illegal in-season test with a current car, the punishment handed out to Pirelli and Mercedes is what really angers all F1 fanatics—nothing.
Mercedes and Pirelli were reprimanded and Mercedes was banned from the young driver testing. This is equivalent to punishing a person for insider trading by banning him from reading his favourite newspaper—for a day. Mercedes received material information on how to improve the car and the improvement is evident in their performance in previous few races. Instead of banning them from the sport or disqualifying them from the 2013 season, they are given a pat on the back and asked to walk away.
When a team is accused of having an unfair advantage due to a particular part modification, the team is immediately asked to replace a part that meets specifications, or worse, be banned from the race. In 2012, during the Australian GP, Sauber was banned from the race because their rear wing did not meet specifications. They were disqualified because there were questions about top surface of the uppermost rear wing element. This area is not the working surface of the component and therefore relatively unimportant to its function. FIA disqualified them nonetheless.
But, apparently when a team participates in a tyre test, violates regulation and received material information to improve the car, FIA’s response is a light slap on the wrist and ban from young driver tests. While it is stupid to tell a team not to use information they already collected and analysed, it is still possible to disqualify them from all races run after the testing and adjust the points of the other teams accordingly.
Neither Ferrari nor Red Bull will be satisfied by the outcome. They were the ones to lodge the complaint against Mercedes’ three-day, 1000-kilometre session—a privilege Pirelli offered no other team. Ferrari has just cause to be most annoyed considering Mercedes is but 11 points behind it on the points table while Red Bull is safely ensconced at the top, 67 points clear of Mercedes.
What needs to be seen is how the teams perform at Silverstone. If Mercedes finishes ahead of Ferrari, Tifosi will not take it silently.
With no major punishment being meted out to Mercedes, any success the team tastes this year will be sullied with the speculation and allegations that it was because of the illegal testing.