Silverstone ... How long will Bernie hold his tongue for .....?

Right. Silverstone ..

 

Tyres blah blah blah balh ablah Redbull whinging blah ablha blah Ferrari not happy blah blah blah blah testing blah blha bblah bhalbbbbllllah Mercedes.

 

Usually It’s a wet and windy affair, but it’s looking like a bright and sunny race at the moment. Bernie will stick the knife into the BRDC at some point. Try and shift the focus away from his impending arrest for being a less that truthful with the German judiciary. The Merc testing ho harr storm in a teacup rumbles on, with Redbull throwing their toys out of the pram.

 

I’ve not really bothered with this whole Merc testing farce because it’s such a waste of time and effort to get worked up about it. The teams can’t agree on what day of the week it is because they have all become so paranoid about what each other is doing. Because there is so much money involved now, there is no trust between the teams. Pirelli have been crucified because their tyres don’t last long enough for the like of Redbull and Mercedes, whilst Lotus and Force India think they are fine.

But because there is no in season testing Pirelli couldn’t develop a tyre last year for this year, and can’t test this year for next, when it’s really going to matter. So they got tired of all the infighting and backstabbing and just went and tested in secret with Mercedes because they needed the data. They’d done the same thing with Ferrari and Redbull in previous years. So why not now ?

 

Its all so tedious. Redbull are now saying that they’re not going to take part in the young drivers test in protest at the FIA not throwing the book at Merc. They’re going to go off and do a test with Ferrari and boo sucks to the FIA. What tyres they’ll be testing is anyone’s guess. Because I think they’ve burnt all their bridges with Pirelli now.  

 

Redbull, never backwards in coming forwards, are really starting to throw their weight around now. I think winning 3 titles on the bounce has giving them a very inflated sense of entitlement. Maybe they want to move in on Ferraris territory as the team with the biggest clout. Horner is starting to be the go to boss for stupid accusations and finger pointing.

 

Well really, what were you expecting the FIA to do about Mercedes testing .. ? Ban them, throw them out of the championship ? take all their points away ….?

The FIA knows the teams won’t agree to anything and they know Pirelli have got to get some sort of testing of 2014 tyres done on comparable machinery. I suspect they knew full well what Merc were up to and just sort of turned a blind eye and waited for the usual suspect to throw a hissy fit, then slap wrists all round “don’t do it again” and breeze off back to HQ.

 

And low and behold that’s what happened.  As I said before, Merc were never going to sort out their tyres issues in three days, it’s a fundamental design issue. Not a set up glitch.

 

Anyway… back to the track. If they can all keep their knives sheathed this week end … take you pick really. Redbull, maybe Ferrari, Lotus have faded a bit as the big boy throw money at the problem. McLaren have been giggling nervously and talking about a ‘maaaaaybe” getting a podium, which is never going to happen.  Mercedes on pole again, about evens, flick a coin between Hamilton at home and Rosberg on a mission.