• FIA International Tribunal

Mercedes offers to skip Young Driver Test

ESPN Staff
June 20, 2013 « International Tribunal set to decide Mercedes' fate | Lauda tried to avoid tribunal »
Mercedes listed examples of potential sanctions it feels it should face if found guilty by the International Tribunal © Getty Images
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Mercedes has volunteered to skip part of the Young Driver Test at Silverstone in order to avoid gaining an advantage over its rivals if it is sanctioned by the FIA.

In stating its case during the International Tribunal at the FIA's headquarters in Paris, Mercedes' lawyer Paul Harris QC insisted the team would not have proceeded with the test without Charlie Whiting's permission, and said: "We did everything we thought reasonable and within our power to obtain the relevant and proper consent - and we thought we got it."

However, Harris added that if Mercedes had breached regulation 22 of the Sporting Regulation then it had done so having acted in good faith and as a result any sanction should be minor, such as a reprimand or a curtailed Young Driver Test.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was present at the International Tribunal and stated his belief that such a sanction would not be sufficient.

"It's not for us to comment on what the penalty should be but usually if you commit a sporting offence there's a sporting penalty that goes with it," Horner said. "I can't see how much of a sanction being banned from a Young Driver Test is. They've already done their test with the senior drivers so being banned from a Young Driver Test probably is not too much of a sanction."

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