Red Bull’s Christian Horner has labelled Ferrari “naughty” for breaching the “spirit” of the in-season testing ban, after amateur video footage was leaked showing the Italian team running its F10 with Red Bull-styled lowered exhausts at Fiorano last week, supposedly under the pretence of a “filming and promotional day”.
Ferrari distributed its own photos of the event and even a video of Alonso driving with a camera mounted on his helmet, Horner argued that while Ferrari may have acted “within the letter of the laws [it was] not within the spirit [of them].
“You don’t just run these cars – there has to be a lot of planning – and it wasn’t by mistake that they happened to run on that day with the new exhaust system," Horner added.
Ferrari confirmed it ran with ultra-hard Bridgestone promotional tyres on the day, but the fact that the Valencia update happened to make its way onto the F10 in time for the promotional activity was certainly not lost on Horner, who called for the gentlemen’s agreement to be respected by all teams.
“It’s important that that should be respected,” he said. “They managed to have a look at it, and they’ve probably learned a bit. I’m sure there will be a lively debate at the next team principals’ meeting.”
Richard Bailey
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