Pirelli have received a vote of confidence from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in the testing saga, affirming that he did not think the team had done anything wrong and that Mercedes should have said no to the controversial tyre test.
The FIA's International Tribunal (IT) is to meet in Paris on June 20 to hear the case against Mercedes and Pirelli concerning their recent tyre test, which follows the protest lodged by Red Bull and Ferrari at the Monaco Grand Prix. The IT will consider whether the three-day test, conducted in Spain last month using a 2013 car, broke F1 regulations, which - with the exception of the annual young driver test and limited straight-line aero work - prohibit the use of current cars for in-season testing.
"Wait until the tribunal, they've got all the facts," Ecclestone told adamcooperf1.com. "If you offer me stolen goods, it's up to me to decide whether I want to accept them or not. It's not up to anyone to tell me what I should do. I should know what I should do.
"Pirelli were doing the right thing, obviously. They couldn't get out of a tyre problem, if there had been proper testing, which there should be, they wouldn't be in this problem. It's only because there's no proper testing that they're in this problem. As people have been complaining, the obvious thing to do was to get out of it by testing. And they asked." In response to whether he felt Pirelli had done anything wrong, Ecclestone said: "Not at all."
Formula One's sole provider has been in the headlines all season after some teams, with champions Red Bull among the most vocal, complained that the 2013 tyres did not allow them to race as before. The tyres have been designed to encourage more pitstops and overtaking by losing performance quicker but that has led to criticism that drivers have had to make too many stops and reduce speeds to make them last.
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