2013 British Grand Prix – Pirelli punctures overshadow Rosberg’s triumph

By Simon Wright

Once again, it was Pirelli who made the headlines and for the wrong reasons at this afternoon’s British Grand Prix, won in grand style by Nico Rosberg.

The under pressure Italian tyre manufacturer has been summoned to an urgent FIA meeting on Wednesday to explain the latest spate of tyre failures that turned the national Grand Prix from a tense and enjoyable day to one of total farce and lunacy.

Lewis Hamilton's victory chances ended early on with this tyre blowout

There were no fewer than five tyre failures in the race, the most on any raceday since Michelin suffered three blowouts during the 2004 Belgian Grand Prix.  Tyres exploded on the cars of early race leader Lewis Hamilton (pictured), Felipe Massa, Jean-Eric Vergne, Esteban Gutierrez and Sergio Perez for the second time this weekend.  Later tests showed all of the top three, plus world champion Sebastian Vettel all had severe cuts on their rubber which would have meant catastrophic failures but for emergency pitstops.

All failures were attributed on the rear tyres, apart from Gutierrez, who suffered a front tyre blowout.  The most terrifying failure was Perez’s explosion in the final six laps, with championship contender Fernando Alonso extremely fortunate to avoid a monumental smash, as he missed the slowing Mexican’s McLaren by millimetres.  Kimi Raikkonen also was pelted with tyre rubber debris from behind Vergne’s Toro Rosso when his tyre blew up on lap 16 on the Hangar Straight at some 300km/h.

Pirelli’s motorsport director is Paul Hembrey, and he is under huge pressure to react to the latest damaging blow for his company this season.  Pirelli have taken huge flak for producing tyres that have raised safety concerns, plus the recent tyre test with Mercedes GP in Barcelona which led to a breaking of sporting regulations and a slap on the wrist.

When cornered by Sky Sports F1 presenter and pit analyst Ted Kravitz after the race, Hembrey said: “Obviously today wasn’t foreseen – we’ve seen something new, a different type of problem.

“We’re currently performing our analysis.  We’ve got to go away and understand what’s happened.  When we’ve got the facts we can understand what’s happened and get to the core of the issue.  We take these things seriously and when we have the answers we’ll let you know.”

Hembrey had a meeting straight after the event with FIA president Jean Todt and race director Charlie Whiting, with accusations flying on whether the failures were being caused by the kerbs at the Northamptonshire circuit, debris in the shoulder of the compound or just total structural failures.

Alonso, who finished third has rubbished suggestions it was kerb involvement, saying: “I don’t think that the kerbs have any influence because I have been racing 12 years now in Silverstone and the kerbs they were never a problem.  So I don’t think that this year they were a problem.”

When discussing his near-miss with Perez, the usually ice cool Spaniard admitted: “A scary moment.  It was high-speed in the middle of the straight.

“I was committed to go to the right to do the move on the right of him and I was lucky because if I committed to do the move on the left maybe all these pieces of the tyre will arrive to me.  That’s something we don’t want to see but we don’t know the solution either, so it’s a question for Pirelli.”

The 31-year-old admitted he was lucky to finish on the podium after qualifying in a season low ninth place on Saturday.  He added; “Looking at the problems with tyres for some of the drivers, the drivers who didn’t have any problems have to feel lucky.

“I have mixed feelings.  I’m happy for the points because we reduced the gap a little in this race, but we saw this weekend that the pace is not good enough.  I trust the team.  There is a lot of work to do, but we are united.”

Social media interaction added to the fury aimed at Pirelli.  Dave Curtis tweeted: “Rubbish tyres have ruined F1 in 2013.  Might be nice to actually see drivers being able to race hard next year?  Sort it out #Pirelli #F1”

David Morgan also tweeted and said: “Great brand advertising for #Pirelli.  Bet they loved it today!”

Many drivers after the race claimed the incidents to be unacceptable, with Perez and Massa leading the calls for change.  The most vocal though was Hamilton, who voiced his concerns to BBC’s Lee McKenzie.

He strongly said: “The safety issue is the biggest concern.  It is just unacceptable.  We had that tyre test to develop and improve the tyre and stop that from happening, and after the test, they didn’t do anything about it. 

“I was thinking behind the Safety Car that it is only when someone gets hurt that someone is going to do something about it.”

The huge concerns about safety with the tyres overshadowed a fine drive from Rosberg, who might have benefited from luck, but was there to take the opportunity and claim his second win in three races.

The day started with bright hopes of a good Grand Prix, and with sunshine arriving in Northampton, the event had the ingredients to be a perfect day, so it was a real shame that despite some pulsating action in the closing laps, the event turned more into a joke than a real sporting contest of man and machine combined.

Before Hamilton’s tyre blowout on lap eight, things were going very well for the home favourite.  He had taken his first Silverstone pole position in six years with a belting lap on Saturday, and made a storming start to lead comfortably in the early stages.  Mercedes have improved on their race performance since their debacle at the Spanish Grand Prix in May and it was more than evident today.

Sebastian Vettel kept Hamilton honest, but had fallen three seconds behind and couldn’t seem to do much about him until fate played its part.  Hamilton was joined at the back of the field by Massa shortly afterwards after his puncture also came at turn four, pitching his Ferrari off the track.  Both were helped by the two Safety Cars that came about in the race, but they probably deserved this good fortune. 

Hamilton had a great dice with Paul di Resta in his fightback and eventually finished fourth, just 10 seconds shy of his team-mate.  Massa’s recovery to sixth was almost unnoticed, but also a good showing considering he only lined up 11^th after completing just 10 dry laps in free practice due to a crash and an engine change in FP3.

Vergne became the third victim of the new version of ‘Russian Roulette.’  The Frenchman was yet to pit and had moved upto sixth place during the first round of stops when his tyre let go in spectacular fashion, right infront of the two Lotus cars.  Both Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean did well to not get caught out, and Vergne did brilliantly to get his machinery under control approaching Stowe corner.  However, his race was totally ruined and he would later retire in the garage with serious damage to his floor and the aerodynamics.

All the debris now from flailing rubber led to a serious clear up of the track and so the Safety Car made its first lengthy appearance of the afternoon.  When it came in, the problems didn’t end there with Gutierrez suffering a failure on the left-front tyre as later confirmed by Sauber.  Perez was the final casualty of the day where safe tyres looked in very short supply.  He was running sixth and was accelerating up the gears from the Chapel complex when he had his second issue of the weekend after a similar rear failure at Copse on Saturday morning in practice.

That happened after the second Safety Car, deployed when Vettel slowed to a halt with 11 laps to go.  Although Rosberg made sure he could never relax, the race was being totally controlled by the German when he suffered a sudden gearbox issue with his usually bulletproof Red Bull exiting Stowe and heading for Club.  Despite desperately trying to find a gear that worked, there was no joy and he chalked up his first DNF since Monza last season.  Vettel believed fifth gear was the offending part that broke, although Christian Horner later confirmed transmission failure was to blame for the lack of drive.

Vettel’s cruel luck didn’t seem to bother the British fans, who seemed to enjoy booing him, as his actions from Malaysia earlier this season continue to win him no new followers.  Rosberg pitted under Safety Car conditions for a precautionary third pitstop after he reported of a severe vibration on one of his tyres.  Mark Webber also did the same, with the team spotting a severe tyre cut which meant another puncture was on the way, while Alonso and Vettel had to bring forward their first pitstops because of similar problems.

Rosberg survived his own tyre problems to record his third career triumph

On the restart, Rosberg pulled away from Raikkonen quickly, who didn’t pit for fresh rubber and suffered because of this.  Webber, who had fought back brilliantly from a horrendous start and contact with Grosjean at the start pulled off a brave and decisive pass at Copse for second place and quickly hunted down his former Williams team-mate.  The Aussie, who finally confirmed he was moving to Porsche’s sportscar programme on Thursday, as first revealed in China in April got to within 0.7 seconds, but Rosberg stood firm to claim his third career victory.  Nevertheless, this was Webber’s best result of the season and his fifth successive rostrum at the British Grand Prix.

Alonso had made a third pitstop and looked like a man possessed in the closing stages, overhauling Daniel Ricciardo, Adrian Sutil and Raikkonen to take the final spot on the podium.  Hamilton also passed a limping Raikkonen on the penultimate circuit to claim fourth, followed by Raikkonen and Massa.

Sutil ran as high as third for the majority of the afternoon, but some cautious Force India strategy cost him a potential podium finish.  Seventh was still a good result, but they probably missed a good opportunity to gain more points today.  It was a similar case at Toro Rosso for Ricciardo, who was eighth despite running in the top six for most of the day.  Di Resta was ninth from the back of the grid despite needing to change a front wing after contact with Nico Hulkenberg just after half-distance and Hulkenberg claimed Sauber’s first point in five races.

Williams just missed out on points in their 600^th Grand Prix event, with Pastor Maldonado 11^th and Valtteri Bottas in 12^th.  Jenson Button was a sitting target in the closing stages with tyres that had run out of grip.  He was a quiet and low-key 13^th in another race where Perez well and truly showed himself up.  Britain’s Max Chilton finished again for the eighth successive event, crossing the line in 17^th place.

There was a late threat to Rosberg’s win after the FIA investigated an incident where he was caught speeding under yellow flags.  However, the Mercedes man was given a fairer sanction of a reprimand and deservedly keeps his win. 

Mercedes might be turning into championship contenders with this result, and Red Bull should be worried.  They don’t want to have any more car breakdowns for the world champion.  

However, Formula One’s integrity for safety has to be called into question after another shameful day for the sport’s image throughout 2013.  With just five days until the German Grand Prix meeting begins at the Nurburgring, something has to be done and quickly to prevent more failures and eliminate the high danger element the sport possesses at the moment.

	2013 FORMULA ONE SANTANDER BRITISH   GRAND PRIX RESULT
Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Reason	Grid
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	52	1hr 32min 59secs	2
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault	52	+0.7secs	4
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	52	+7.1secs	9
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes GP	52	+7.7secs	1
5	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	52	+11.2secs	8
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	52	+14.5secs	11
7	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	52	+16.3secs	6
8	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	52	+16.5secs	5
9	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes	52	+17.9secs	22
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber Ferrari	52	+19.7secs	14
11	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault	52	+21.1secs	15
12	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault	52	+25.0secs	17
13	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	52	+25.9secs	10
14	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber Ferrari	52	+26.2secs	16
15	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault	52	+31.6secs	18
16	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth	52	+36.0secs	19
17	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth	52	+1min 07.6secs	20
18	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault	52	+1min 07.7secs	21
19R	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	51	Unknown Cause	7
20R	Sergio Perez	McLaren Mercedes	46	Tyre Explosion	13
R	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault	41	Transmission	3
R	Jean-Eric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	35	Aerodynamic Damage	12

Drivers’ Championship after 8 rounds: 1. Sebastian Vettel 132, 2. Fernando Alonso 111, 3. Kimi Raikkonen 98, 4. Lewis Hamilton 89, 5. Mark Webber 87, 6. Nico Rosberg 82, 7. Felipe Massa 57, 8. Paul di Resta 36, 9. Romain Grosjean 26, 10. Jenson Button 25, 11. Adrian Sutil 23, 12. Jean-Eric Vergne 13, 13. Sergio Perez 12, 14. Daniel Ricciardo 11, 15. Nico Hulkenberg 6

Constructors’ Championship after 8 rounds: 1. Red Bull Racing 219, 2. Mercedes GP 171, 3. Ferrari 168, 4. Lotus 124, 5. Force India 59, 6. McLaren 37, 7. Scuderia Toro Rosso 24, 8. Sauber 6

Categories:

Skins - All good things have to end

By Simon Wright

I can speak for the majority of people who follow a television programme closely, so much so that they want to know everything about it – from transmission dates to filming behind the scenes and cast interviews.

It doesn’t matter if that might be TOWIE, Big Brother, Shameless, even Coronation Street or Deal or No Deal – we all have prime favourites.

One of mine of recent years has been the E4 teen drama series Skins.  On July 1, the seventh series of this gripping phenomenon will begin.  However, it is the last series to be aired – which is a sad feeling, but also the right decision.

But why has Skins had a core audience, and is a final flourish the right way to go out on?

Core audience

When Skins burst onto the television screens back in February 2007, the show was completely different from your normal brand of drama.  This wasn’t a predictable series of classic actors playing stereotypical characters in a plotline that can often get quite repetitive. 

Admittedly, I never really liked the first generation and only saw the odd clip of the first two series, but that all changed with series three in 2009.

Skins started off with an audience which has now grown up.  For example, those who first watched it six years ago probably weren’t following it so much when the final full series ended around Easter last year, but that is a good thing.  It has a specific core audience range of around 16-22, and I would be concerned if a 50-year-old individual listed it among their favourite programmes.  After all, it is about teenagers and life at college, and that’s as far as it goes.

The second generation of Skins characters were my favourites

Audience figures have generally been impressive, always just under the one million mark.  In fact, the series four opener which began with the death of a mysterious stranger in a nightclub attracted 1.5m combined on E4 & E4+1.  Even the final major generation still were receiving decent figures, despite the decline in writing ability and storylines.

I was a religious watcher of series three, four and five, and watched occasional episodes from series six, mainly if a character’s episode had been impressive in the fifth series (Mini and Franky) as examples.  

Although my interest in the show waned towards the end of series five and into series six, I will be tuning into series seven and see how things have progressed for the cast of the past.

Giving youngsters a chance

I should know this more than anyone, but in David Cameron’s Britain of today, the chances for youngsters are predominately thin.  Things could be better in terms of job prospects, or choices of what we can do.

One thing that has impressed me with Skins is the determination to give young actors and actresses a real chance.  The talent that has come through with Skins has been impressive, and often, the acting really does shine through, especially if a storyline is weak (series four was a prime example of this).

Dev Patel and Nicholas Hoult had the best success out of the first generation.  Patel went on to star in the award-winning sensation Slumdog Millionaire, whilst Hoult has gone into major roles in film, especially in the X-Men trilogy.  

In generation two, Jack O’Connell has come on leaps and bounds.  He has had roles in film and two powerful TV dramas, Dive and United.  Fellow lead cast member of this generation Kaya Scodelario has appeared in a host of music videos for the artist Plan B, whilst Ollie Barbieri, Lily Loveless and Kathryn Prescott have also had a host of different roles since Skins ended.  

Dakota Blue Richards was one of the stars of the third generation, and recently had a lead role in the ITV five-part drama Lightfields and Freya Mavor is currently starring in the gripping BBC thriller The White Queen. 

For the majority of these actors, these opportunities would never have come about had it not been for the successful breakthrough of Skins and the producers must take great credit for this.

Of course, that doesn’t mean to say that famous faces never appeared in Skins – far from it.  

There were plenty of guest characters playing minor roles, from comedians and impressionists, to presenters and normal actors.  Among fans favourites were Harry Enfield, Sally Phillips, John Bishop, Ronni Ancona, Pauline Quirke, the late Geoffrey Hughes, and Scott Mills.

And its success has been recognised.  Skins won the Audience Award at the 2009 BAFTAs, and Best TV Show at the 2011 NME Awards, as well as various other high-profile nominations and critical acclaim.

What happened to the movie?

In 2010, the green light was given to Skins: The Movie, as indicated on my first blogging website.  However, this never happened.  Ultimately, it was probably a good thing.

Unlike shows like The Inbetweeners, it would have been mighty difficult for Skins to have had major success at the box office, just because of the way things get portrayed in the TV series.

Consequently, work shifted more onto series five and six, and the doomed American remake, which turned into a complete failure and was axed after one highly controversial series.

Whilst there was disappointment that the movie dream didn’t quite happen for Skins, a final TV series is a better way to go out.

There has been some powerful storylines, and that is ignoring the drugs, drink and sex that is part of the teenagers’ lives in every series.  Having watched three full series, my favourite storylines were Katie Fitch (played by Megan Prescott) having to deal with the bombshell news that she wasn’t able to have kids in series four, and at the same time, attempt to keep the very popular Fitch family together as the recession starts to destroy their happy lives.  

Other favourites were the storylines that came through in Mini McGuinness' (Freya Mavor) episodes when she had to deal with an unexpected pregnancy and attempting to revive a relationship with her father, who simply didn’t care about her, and the successful pairing of Naomi (Lily Loveless) and Emily (Kathryn Prescott) as a lesbian couple in series three and four.  'Naomily,' as avid fans titled them, broke down new barriers and also proved that despite a lot of heartache, happy endings do exist in television drama.

The final fling

Last year, it was decided that there would be no more full series’ of Skins.  That might have disappointed budding actors and actresses who would have seen the open auditions as a great opportunity to get their name out there.  However, it is the right decision.

One of Effy Stonem’s lines in series four sticks with me: “Nothing’s ever perfect.”  That’s very true, and all good things at some point need to come to an end.  Last year’s series started to see some slow decline with the show, and another two years would have been a mistake, and left a mark on the legacy of Skins.

Some shows drag on and on, don’t reach a natural conclusion and then become so unbelievable, you just stop watching them.  American shows are particularly guilty of this, whilst the saucy Footballers Wives and fictional Sky football drama Dream Team both attracted huge followings, but probably went on at least one more year past their natural sell-by-date.

Kaya Scodelario returns as Effy in Skins Fire, the first of the final mini-series

The producers of Skins and Channel 4 have done the right thing, and by coming back with a mini-series over the summer is the perfect farewell.  Three classic characters in Effy (Kaya Scodelario), Cassie (Hannah Murray) and Cook (Jack O’Connell) will reprise their roles for two separate episodes each which shows how their characters have developed as they’ve left the crazy teenage world and entered the new adult planet, and how much they have changed.

Effy’s story is first, titled Skins Fire.  Effy gets a job in the city, and when she learns too much about a dodgy financial deal and has an affair with the boss of the company she works for, it puts friendships and people in grave danger.  Fans of ‘Naomily’ will be delighted to know that Naomi and Emily will return to their roles in a cameo backdrop, with Emily known to be studying a photography internship in New York, and Naomi living with Effy in London.  A trailer has been released by E4 for a sneak peak at what’s to come in Skins Fire, and that can be seen below.

Cassie’s story is next and is also set in London.  She is aged 23, two years older than the other returning main characters as she was part of generation one.  ‘Skins Pure’ will be edgy watching involving following people and the forming of a strange friendship.

In ‘Skins Rise,’ Cook is doing what he does best.  Now in Manchester, he hasn’t grown up from his teenage days of drugs, sex and violence on a regular basis, despite a brief stint in jail.  Cook is a drugs dealer and when his employer asks him to find a house for his attractive girlfriend, you can guess the rest.  Expect revenge to be served and a reminder of his previous dodgy past.

And after these six weeks, it will be all over.  Skins has left plenty of good and dramatic memories, given new actors and actresses a real breakthrough and is going out at just the right time.  Let’s hope that it ends on a high with this final mini-series.

Categories: 2009, Audience, Britain, Dakota Blue Richards, Dev Patel, E4, February, Jack O'Connell, Kathryn Prescott, Lily Loveless, NME, Plan B, Skins, Slumdog Millionaire, TV

Testgate - Mercedes lucky to escape severe sanctions

By Simon Wright

The French capital of Paris has recently played host to an international tribunal which could have had major implications on the Formula One season for 2013.

The FIA tribunal virtually cleared Mercedes in 'Testgate'

Petronas AMG Mercedes F1, whose factory is based in Brackley, Northamptonshire were in the dock over an alleged illegal tyre test they had conducted with Pirelli just days after the Spanish Grand Prix in May.  The Italian tyre supplier was also told to face the summons at the FIA International Tribunal (logo pictured).

Discussions, defence and remonstrations were held in a highly charged environment on Thursday, so much so that journalists were not allowed to use Twitter to update fans during the evidence that was given.

On Friday, the verdict was handed down.  Mercedes were found in breach of sporting regulations, and were reprimanded along with being banned from competing in the Silverstone Young Drivers’ Test.

However, they escaped a hefty fine, points deductions or even race bans for what seemingly seems to be gaining a blatant advantage.

So, why did the penalty feel like no punishment at all, and where does it leave the FIA, Mercedes and Pirelli as the sport regroups at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix next weekend.

Background

For those not in the knowledge of why it went this far, it all started after a difficult weekend for both Pirelli and Mercedes at the Spanish Grand Prix.  Mercedes suffered from chronic tyre wear, as their cars dropped from the front row lockout they took in qualifying to a very uncompetitive sixth place for Nico Rosberg and 12^th for Lewis Hamilton. 

Pirelli themselves were heavily criticised (including by yours truly) for tyres that could barely last three laps around Barcelona before they started graining and delaminating on a couple of occasions, including once in the race for Jean-Eric Vergne.  Afterwards, they wanted to do a tyre test and Mercedes agreed to help them out.

While others teams packed up, Mercedes stayed behind at the Circuit de Catalunya, and did a three-day test with their 2013 drivers in a 2013 car.

News of this broke when Rosberg mentioned the test to world champion Sebastian Vettel at the GPDA meeting in Monaco.

Vettel told his team and as more information came out, Red Bull Racing and Ferrari made a joint protest on the morning of the race around the streets of Monte Carlo, claiming that Mercedes were in breach of the FIA Sporting Regulations, which prohibits in-season testing after the first week in March until the end of the season.

Mercedes claimed they had received permission from the FIA.  Although they claimed to have written documents, the FIA stated this wasn’t the case.  After a stewards meeting after the Monaco Grand Prix, which Rosberg won convincingly for Mercedes, the case was sent to a tribunal on 20 June.

Counter Punch

The teams moved onto Canada, which Red Bull team boss Christian Horner used strong words such as ‘foul’ and even stating Mercedes were guilty of a ‘crime.’  It later turned out Ferrari had done their own tyre test after April’s Bahrain Grand Prix, though this was with a 2011 car and thus were cleared of any wrongdoing.

In public, Horner kept suggesting all they wanted was clarity on the whole situation.  Deep down, his body language suggested he wanted a big penalty applied against one of his team’s major rivals.

Other teams kept quiet.  Lotus were lobbied by Red Bull to join the protest, but refused as they had been unhappy with earlier instances regarding technical decisions in the past year.  

McLaren stayed out of the mess, as they have their own problems sorting out a car that is so bad, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez would probably do better performing in a barbershop quartet!

So the evidence started to unravel at the tribunal hearing.  Mercedes claimed that they had gained no benefit from doing the 1,000km test, and team principal Ross Brawn stated they had verbal permission from regular FIA race director Charlie Whiting to use their 2013 car.

They did admit that by using plain helmets to discard the use of race drivers was the wrong thing to do, and apologised for that and clearly stated that the test was at Pirelli’s request, and it was to solve concerns over tyre safety which have dogged this championship.

The FIA’s response was they had received no written consent from Mercedes to do the test, and were unaware of the situation Pirelli had got themselves into.  Thursday also concluded with Mercedes offering a compromise of being banned for the Young Drivers’ Test to try and negate any potential advantage they had.

Verdict surprise

The general reaction I received from text messages from friends who follow the sport on Friday were one of surprise and disappointment.  Journalists seemed surprised by the leninent action too. 

Most were suspecting of at least a points deduction from the constructors’ championship or even expulsion from that championship for 2013.  This result is perfect for Mercedes – and not only keep Ross Brawn’s integrity intact, it keeps him in a job.

If Mercedes were found guilty, the man who worked so brilliantly with Michael Schumacher throughout his first career, and spearheaded the fairytale Brawn story in 2009 from the ashes of Honda would surely have paid the price at Mercedes.

As reported by BBC Sport, Brawn said: "We have a blemish-free record here and it was very important to Mercedes that the facts of this case were understood.

"It does sometimes strengthen your resolve rather than weaken it but now it's cleared away we can concentrate on the rest of the year,"

In their own statement, the FIA commented: "The FIA wishes that lessons are learnt from this case and from the decision handed down.  To this end, the FIA will make sure, in association with all F1 teams, that its control of the testings' is strengthened." 

No consistency

In the immediate aftermath of the verdict, I thought the whole episode had been a complete waste of everyone’s time and money, and it is not fair for Grand Prix racing.

No matter the reasons of the test, Mercedes used a 2013 car which is strictly against the regulations.  This was even admitted by the tribunal, but the punishment is pretty unfair on the other teams.  Mercedes have done an illegal test – there’s no getting away from it in my view and the book could and well should have been thrown at them.

A race ban was potentially there, although if that was applied – could you have imagined the reaction of the British fans if Hamilton hadn’t been allowed to start his home race next week?  That would have been brave to do in the circumstances, as an appeal would almost certainly have been made.

A fairer penalty would have been a deduction of constructors’ points – at least from the two most recent races after the test, or prohibited to score points in the next three events.  It is a team issue, so the drivers should be cleared and made free to race.

The FIA’s rule-making system is not fair – there is no consistency.  Other penalties such as BAR using fuel as ballast in 2005 and the ‘Spygate’ controversy of 2007 have ended with far more serious penalties.

Mercedes have come out of the whole episode smiling.  Red Bull and Ferrari wanted clarity, and that is something that they haven’t really got I think.  Both seem to have grudgingly accepted the verdict, probably the right thing to do so the fans can concentrate on the racing.

Pirelli's named has been tarnished in F1 2013 and rightly so

As for Pirelli (tyres pictured), they've lost total control of the tyre situation in the sport.  Why they don't have their own test car is bewildering.  They had one last year, with former F1 pilots Lucas di Grassi and Jaime Alguersuari doing tyre testing.  Why have they not got one this year?  No matter if it is a financial problem, this is their mess and Formula One is in a difficult place.

With Bridgestone not willing to supply tyres again until the recession ends, and Goodyear and Continental recently stating no interest in a return, the FIA’s determination to hound Michelin out of the sport at the end of 2006 has come back to haunt them.  

We are now stuck with a tyre supplier who might have spiced up the racing, and ensured pitstop strategy is a factor again rather than a complete non-event, but has taken things totally to the other extreme.  The scenario is not good.  Pirelli will probably extend their contract, largely because the FIA has no other options and that is their own fault for what they did to Michelin after the tyre fiasco at Indianapolis in 2005, even after Michelin admitted their guilt and did all they could to reimburse disgruntled supporters at the time. 

The International Tribunal was a total waste of everyone’s time.  Mercedes have escaped virtually scot-free from doing something completely prohibited by the current rules, and whilst we can now try to get back to ‘racing,’ although that is a strong word to use in 2013 considering the crazy tyre management we’ve often seen, I get the feeling more questions have been raised by the verdict rather than the answers we were all looking for.

Categories: 2013, Britain, FIA, Mercedes, Paris, Pirelli, Ross Brawn, Silverstone, Tribunal, Twitter