We unravel a long day at the FIA tribunal as verdict is due Friday

Edwin GlasgowQC, the President of the FIA Hearing as well as Laurent Anselmi, Chris Harris, Patrick Raedersdorf and Tony-Scott Andrews, the four FIA judges listened during a seven hour long session to the arguments of the different parties and accepted various documents.

The decision and the verdict in the FIA International Tribunal hearing over the Mercedes and Pirelli tyre test will come on Friday, said Glasgow, during summing up on Thursday after an all day session at the FIA's headquarters in Paris.

"You will have [the verdict] by tomorrow," he said. "We will say nothing more than that now."

The FIA opened the hearing at 09:30 on Thursday in presence of representatives from Mercedes AMG Petronas, FIA, and Pirelli in addition to representatives of several other F1 teams, in the FIA Commission room at the Federation's HQ in Paris..

The FIA contended that Mercedes had not been given permission for the test which they undertook in Barcelona and that the use of Mercedes' 2013 car was a breach of the regulation.

A summary of the documents available was made by Concillor Glasgow, who explained that the judges had already studied the case and all documents a day prior to the actual hearing.

The FIA produced a list of inconsistencies that have been noted. For FIA, the main problem seems to be that during the test organized by Pirelli in Barcelona, none of the other teams were present or aware of the situation. The FIA had received an informal request, but FIA had not been aware that the test would actually go ahead in Barcelona nor when.

Mark Howard QC, the Ferrari lawyer noted that the FIA is involved as the regulator of the F1 Championships, and that two protests have been lodged by two F1 teams, Scuderia Ferrari and Infiniti Red Bull Racing.

A number of emails exchanged between Pirelli and Mercedes on four occasions in May involving Damiani Massimiliano of Pirelli, and Andrew Shovlin, the Mercedes team Race Engineer were analysed by the Tribunal.

The question was also debated whether following the tests, any significant amount of data had been provided to Mercedes and if the team had gained advantage from the test. Overall, the FIA pointed out that any F1 testing including this Mercedes test is prohibited unless exceptions are made which would have to apply to all competitors. Any test could be authorized with a special dispensation. Authorization for the test, and whether F1 race director Charlie Whiting gave any such authorization is "irrelevant" as testing was a breach and the way the permission was asked was discussed at great length.

There is no room for doubt that the use by Mercedes of the 2013 car was also a question mark and that running the 2013 car was equated to track running time and was done deliberately. According to the court, there is no doubt that if a team runs a car on the track for 1000 km as in this case. The fact remains that Mercedes ran the car with drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nigel Rosberg with the current car 2013 which according to FIA clearly infringes the regulations.

Later Pirelli defended that they had no indication that it infringed the testing regulation as per the governing rules or their contract and a recall of the contract between Pirelli and the FIA was discussed.

In the end, Pirelli highlighted that team Petronas Mercedes AMG F1 did not have a car other than the 2013 car available for the test and Mercedes explained why they had chosen to have their drivers' wear black helmets while they kept their branded race hospitality at the track side. Claims were made that it was not a “secret” test but a “private” occasion. Telephone calls from May 17 with Mario Isola at Pirelli showed that the tire company was interested in understanding the delamination issue that occurred to all teams after Bahrain.

“Even the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers Association) had sent a letter to Pirelli to express their worries and FIA questioned Pirelli about the safety of the tires prior to the Canadian GP. This has been presented as part of the reason why Mercedes wanted to solve the problem and why the problem was addressed.

The overall Mercedes line of defense was very clear:

As for Pirelli, their lawyer Me. Dominique Dumas, also explained that they have difficulty with the protest which Italian supplier finds unfounded. Pirelli has not violated the national sporting code. For Me. Dumas the inadmissibility of the disciplinary procedure against Pirelli is clear and the lawyer also raised the problem of jurisdiction. the FIA / Pirelli contract describes that in case of disagreement the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris has juridiction.

According to him, FIA has no sanction power against Pirelli on the ground of article 7 as is explained in the charges sent on June 7 and this text cannot be opposed to Pirelli

In the framework of a similar case with Flavio Briatore, the FIA as a French company could have jurisdiction but this would onlybe valid where people have accepted the jurisdiction. Only an F1 License holder can be sentenced by the FIA.

the FIA has jurisdiction over race stewards. However, Pirelli does not feel accept the authority of the FIA. The Pirelli contract is refers to .

To conclude this long hearing on Thursday, June 20, 2013 Fabrizio Dini on behalf of Pirelli Legal Department, no doubt of aware that his role as a legal representative included some PR responsibilities, remarked that "responsibility, passion, commitment are daily words at Pirelli". The Mercedes F1 team lawyer representing Ross Brawn and Mercedes AMG Petronas hoped that Mercedes had proved that they had been acting in good faith and were not guilty, explaining that Mercedes believes that it only deserves a reprimand for testing with a 2013 car - or at worst a ban from the young driver test - if the FIA's International Tribunal decides that it is indeed guilty of a rule breach. The F1 young driver test in July for all F1 teams would be an occasion for Mercedes to "level the advantage gained by the 1000 kilometers of testing", with other teams.

The answer on the 'small earthquake' in the F1 world, will be given by a press release tomorrow Friday June 21, 2013

(Source: Agnes Carlier)