BLS, next time we welcome a new member, let's make sure we approve his/her post first! f1fan1981, apologies that your post didn't appear right away. To reduce the amount of spam, if a new account posts a link then the post gets auto-moderated until a mod approves it. I think that goes away after you've made about 10 posts, and posts without a link in them will be fine. You'll just have to get posting. Oh, and welcome aboard!
It would be incredibly naive. Even with full FIA approval there'd surely be eyebrows raised at Mercedes that it hadn't been discussed with the other teams.
I forgot about that spam thing My bad. Lewis Hamilton ‏@LewisHamilton 13 May Just touched down in Orlando, USA! Got a blackberry event here tomorrow which should be cool. Great weather out here! That was the Monday after Barcelona, unless its part of the elaborate cover up Hamilton wasn't at the Mercedes test.
Would be hilarious if it was a cover up. I think it's safe to say neither of them were there then (Hamilton would surely kick off if Nico got three extra days of testing). Who was it then?
Ok, this is getting silly now. So Mercedes conducted a test that may or may not have been illegal, using two cars, the driver of one of which may or may not have been in another continent. And Davidson can't have driven, otherwise he'd have surely mentioned it when it was discussed on the Sky coverage.
I think this is the whole issue, Pirelli say the FIA knew about (and authorised) the test, FIA say, yes we knew about the test but there were conditions (see letter earlier in thread) which were not fulifilled and Pirelli never got back to the FIA anyway. RBR and Ferrari are saying that they dont have a problem with the testing as such, they do however have an issue with Pirelli using a 2013 Merc and having Nico/Lewis do the tyre 'testing'. If Im not mistaken? The question I want to know the answer to is, why did Pirelli as for a 2013 Merc, or.. why, when Merc offered a 2013 spec car, didnt Pirelli politely remind them of the in-season testing rules and decline? ... And thankyou for the welcome!
Mercedes could have easily told him not to discuss certain team matters on air, If it was not him I'm struggling to think who else as he is the designated test/simulator driver. And for this test it would make more sense to have him than Bird.
Hmm, BLS' detective work got me curious. Sam Bird's twitter suggests he was at a Gatwick based F1 fitness base on the 16th, and a Chiropractor in Cobham on the 17th. That could suggest he came back to the UK late after Barcelona. His only tweets on the Mon-Wed were at times that could easily have worked around a test session, not that that proves anything though.
sam bird ‏@sambirdracing 7 May Can't wait to drive one of these again pic.twitter.com/D0W3sJcQUL Reading to much into it? Nothing else to suggest it in his tweets on the 13th 14th 15th.
The whole thing seemed rushed, its pure guess work but I think Mercedes may have gotten vague approval from the FIA and then quickly got a test in with the 2013 car incase the FIA realised a mistake. Theres going to be so many layers to this story which I hope Jonny public gets to hear.
I completely agree although why do you think Pirelli would assist Merc in this way? I can't imagine why they would try to sort of rush this through and keep it a little hush if not to aid Merc.
Adding to that, I'm sure I heard on today's coverage that this has been agreed since March? It doesn't sound rushed.
In that case someone somewhere should know better. Assuming they would know better that means the only answer is loopholes and vague FIA directives
