Red Bull and Ferrari have officially lodged a protest with the FIA against Mercedes following the revelation that the Brackley outfit conducted a 1000km private test at the request of Pirelli.
Whilst Mercedes and Pirelli insist the test was carried out with the permission of the governing body, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner wants clarity.
“We feel it is not in line with the rules which is why we have protested here before the race here, irrelevant of what the outcome of the race is,” Horner said.
“We just want clarity. I don’t think we’re the only team that feels that way. I don’t think it’s Pirelli’s fault, they need to sort their situation out, the problem is the manner in which it’s been dealt with.”
Ferrari also conducted a test for Pirelli after the Bahrain GP, but with a two-year old car. They too are unhappy with the test and have confirmed they will support Red Bull with their protest.
Lotus meanwhile have refused to be drawn into the matter at present.
The protest puts Mercedes participation in the Monaco GP and indeed the remaining races under threat should Red Bull successfully protest the test’s legality.
Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn is adamant the test was legal and the FIA agreed to it after he sought clarification on the matter.
“We’ll have to wait and see what the stewards say, we are pretty clear, we were approached by Pirelli as they were concerned by some of the issues and they didn’t feel the car they had was representative,” Brawn said.
“Within their agreement with the FIA there is a provision to allow them [Pirelli] to ask any team to do a 1000km tyre test. We ran that past the FIA to see if they were happy, and they were.”
