Horner not convinced that Mercedes is innocent

Christian Horner was the only other team principal, apart from Ross Brawn, present at the FIA tribunal in Paris where Mercedes and Pirelli were in the dock. He left the tribunal unconvinced of Mercedes' innocence.

Asked if he thought that Mercedes had argued its case in a manner which would exonerate the team, the Horner said, "Not really, but it's down to the tribunal now. They've got all the facts so we trust in them to make the appropriate decision."

ESPN quoted the Red Bull F1 boss as saying, "I think there's perhaps a degree of ambiguity but the rules are very clear and all the teams know what the rules are; they spend an awful lot of time and involvement in writing the rules with the FIA so I think all the teams are quite clear on what the rules are."

As for the penalty Horner said, "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. I think it's quite clear that whenever you run a Formula 1 car you're learning something - in particular a current car - so it's almost irrelevant what tyres they had on."

"The most important thing to come out of this is clarity; either you're allowed to test or you're not. Obviously Ferrari have conducted a couple of tests that have come out of this as well - albeit in a 2011 car which is within the regulations - but the most important thing moving forward is that there's transparency and clarity because the way that test was conducted isn't right," added Horner.

The verdict on the matter will be announced at the FIA headquarters on Friday.

Subbed by AJN.