Formula 1 roundup: A minor incident

This week in quotes

* After a seven-hour hearing, the FIA International Tribunal ruled that Mercedes had been guilty of a breach of F1\'s sporting regulations for running its 2013 car--driven by its regular drivers--in a 1,000km Pirelli test. It was established, among other things, that the test \"was not carried out by Pirelli and/or Mercedes with the intention that Mercedes should obtain any unfair sporting advantage,\" and neither of the two \"acted in bad faith at any material time.\" However, the four-person Tribunal panel decided that \"Mercedes did obtain some material advantage (even if only by way of confirmation of what had not gone wrong) as a result of testing.\" The team was thus issued a reprimand, and was also banned from participating in the three-day young driver test at Silverstone Circuit next month.

* Pirelli was given a reprimand as well, since it was proven that the tiremaker did pass (as it \"had intended confidentially\") to Mercedes data that \"Pirelli expressly regarded as being of high importance even if, as [the members of the International Tribunal panel] accept, it was in fact of limited value to Mercedes because it was unaware of the tire(s) to which the report related.\" Both Pirelli and Mercedes are each to pay a third of the cost of the International Tribunal proceedings, with the FIA footing the last third of the bill.

* While Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was unperturbed over this decision, saying that \"the penalty is not for us to decide,\" Ferrari openly criticized the outcome via its \"Horse Whisperer\" column: \"All this reminds the Whisperer that if he ever finds himself running a Formula 1 team in the near future and that he gets off to a difficult start to the season, then all it needs is to organize a nice week of testing at the right moment and then maybe have to skip a later session, by which time, everything could be done and dusted. What do you reckon?\"

 

 

This week in numbers

* 20: The number of pages of the full International Tribunal decision. (Good luck if you really want to click on that link.)

* 35%: The minority shareholding stake acquired by Infinity Racing in the Lotus F1 team. Note that this isn\'t the same Infiniti that is Nissan\'s premium brand and Red Bull\'s current title sponsor (via its partnership with Renault).

* 13: The number of times Jenson Button has contested the British GP, without once winning his home race. Unfortunately for him, it still doesn\'t look like he\'ll achieve victory in his 14th appearance this coming weekend. \"But we\'re going to do the best job we can and fight for as many points as we can, so you never know what the end result can be,\" the McLaren driver said.

* 600hp and 160hp: The respective estimated outputs of the new Renault Energy F1\'s combustion engine (a 1.6-liter turbo V6) and energy-recovery system. This \'Power Unit,\' as Renault calls it, will be run by Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Caterham next year.

 

This week in tweets

* Once in a while, the Horse Whisperer stirs, especially when something happens that gets him worked up.
- Ferrari\'s Horse Whisperer (@GrilloRampante) minced no words in its criticism of the International Tribunal\'s decision on \"test-gate.\"

* \'Test gate\' turned out to be a lot of hype about nothing. Suspect several teams would like to trade young driver test for a pre-race 3-day test.
- Former F1 driver and current Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle (@MBrundleF1) hit the nail on the head.

* Challenge completed. This is Adrian\'s office. #SpyChallenge #OPENHOUSE
- The Red Bull Racing Spy (@redbullf1spy) gave a peek into where the team\'s championship-winning cars are first conceptualized.

Photos from Mercedes AMG Petronas, Renault and Infiniti Red Bull Racing