The last few weeks in the world of F1 have been pretty messy. I am a huge F1 fan (as I will discuss in a future blog) and I have nothing against Mercedes F1 team, in fact I am a fan of both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. That being said I think the FIA have made a total mess of the whole tyregate issue.
Just to provide a little background to the situation, Mercedes performed what they are calling a 1000km ‘tyre test’ at the request of Pirelli. However they used the current spec car and failed to follow correct procedures by getting official permission from the FIA. This resulted a number of rival teams to lodge a protest. Mercedes didn’t help their cause by being incredibly fast, winning a number of pole positions and the Monaco Grand Prix. But was there pace helped by this test? To be honest there is no way to ever know for sure but the timing of this sudden burst of pace does strike me as odd but then again Mercedes have been threatening great pace for a long time so maybe it is just a coincidence. However it isn’t the test which has frustrated me but more the FIA’s reaction and eventual ‘punishment’.
When the story first broke it was clear something was amiss. Why were Mercedes asked to test when noone else was? Why did they use the current season car? And for me the biggest bit of confusion was the story that the drivers wore plain helmets to avoid the fans pestering them. Why would a major team mind if their driver helped raise the popularity of the team, is it all possible they were concerned that the drivers may get talked about on social media which would spark major question marks over the test session. These are questions I will never know the answer to.
For me, maybe a simple but idiotic solution to this mess would have been pirelli and the FIA to instantly allow any team in F1 the chance to do a similar test at some point in the season. It would have levelled the playing field slightly but also enabled pirelli to work on the tyres to create better compounds for next season to improve racing, which sadly has been poor this season. It is jot like testing hasn’t been on the agenda this season, with the recent ill timed press release that 2014 will see the return of in season testing. Whether or not this was something brought to the table by Mercedes public indiscretion or just a poor sense of timing for the announcement will likely remain a mystery.
Then their is the final ‘punishment’ that the FIA dished out. They had a fantastic chance to settle this issue once and for all by being strict or relaxed with the judgement. However they handed out middle of the road penalties.
For starter lets get the pirelli reprimand out of the way. I do agree in part with this verdict although how an organisation which the Formula One world needs in order to race can be heavily punished after the reprimand is beyond me.
Anyway now lets move onto the Mercedes penalty which was two-fold, a reprimand and being banned for the end of season young driver test. the reprimand was expected however this ban frustrated me. Firstly how does this actually punish a team like Mercedes? Simply put, it won’t. The young drivers test is a good way to asses the qualities of the next generation of potential F1 drivers. The teams can use it to groom their future drivers and give them valuable experience, however for a team like Mercedes it is unlikely the driver in this test will get a race seat at the team in the coming years. If it were a smaller team, such as Marrusia and Catherham then it may prove troublesome. So to me it seems that the only person being punished is the Mercedes reserve driver, talented young Brit, Sam Bird who has been touted for a future race seat in F1. Now why has he been punished? He didn’t take part in the tyre test, as far as we are aware, and yet he will now likely be denied a chance to get his hands on a F1 car in a no pressure situation such as the young drivers test. That being said he may still find himself in the end of season test. A team like Mercedes which wields a major power within the world of F1 they may find Bird another ride within the young drivers test. This would mean another team gives up its opportunity to asses their own young talent, but their may be positives to take from that arrangement such as a cash incentive and/or the chance to be the first team to give Bird the chance to live his dream in F1.
I will wrap things up here as I’m sure I have taken up much of your time already. Thank you for reading and any feedback you can give would be fantastic. What are your thoughts on this saga?
martinlchapman 