Formula One: Mercedes not targeting Ferrari in seeking guidance on partnership

Ferrari have been working closely with the new United States based Haas team, who are due to make their debut next season and enjoy the use of a full scale rolling road wind tunnel in Concord, North Carolina. The Haas team has entered the 2016 world championship – meaning that during 2015 it was not subject to the same tunnel-hours restriction as teams already competing. These limits are set out in Paragraph 3.6 of the Appendix.

“The Stewards recommend to the FIA that in future once a potential competitor (as opposed to Official Entry) applies to be a competitor in the FIA Formula One World Championship and this application is accepted, that competitor should be bound by Appendices 6 and 8 (and for that matter any other appropriate sections of the Formula One Sporting and Technical Regulations)”.

“Written submissions must be made no later than 1700 hrs today (Saturday)”.

Formula One world champions Mercedes have denied targeting Ferrari in seeking clarification from the governing FIA about how much teams can work together to develop their cars.

“The Stewards will endeavour to hand down their decision on the specific matters prior to the start of the Race on Sunday”.

“We haven’t launched anything against a particular team”, he told reporters. “We gave all our information to the FIA in the past, as we do in the present”.

Have Ferrari found a way round F1’s wind-tunnel rules?

Ferrari was investigated earlier in the year, though the FIA subsequently cleared the Italian team of any wrongdoing.

However, the FIA ruled that “there is no evidence that competitors have not complied with the requirements” of the relevant rules.

“This is the trigger for reorganising your structure to share aerodynamic testing restrictions quota, to collaborate and educate personnel jointly and share infrastructure”, he said.

He warned, however, that unless the rules were clarified, there could be an “arms race” between teams trying to sign up as many cooperation partners as possible to speed up development of their cars.

It’s a view shared by Ron Dennis.