01/04/2020
NEWS STORY
At a time most articles on F1 websites appear to have more in common with medical journals, it would be easy to forget that prior to the Australian Grand Prix it was 'business as usual' in at least one respect, that of the FIA having a perceived bias in favour of Ferrari.
This time it concerned the FIA's investigation into Ferrari's 2019 engine, the governing body seemingly letting the Italian team off the hook after being unable to technically prove that anything was wrong.
While this in itself was bad enough, it was the FIA's admission that it had reached an agreement with the Italian team and was not intending to make its findings public that incensed a number of rival teams.
In the same way that the technical directives flowed late last summer, in the days leading up to Melbourne it was statements from the seven 'rebel' teams and the FIA that were flying back and forth, amidst talk of legal action and lack of trust.
While Mercedes has seemingly cooled on the idea of pressing ahead with its case, a decision said to have been passed down from the very top at Daimler Benz, for Red Bull (and others) the matter is clearly far from settled.
"At the moment that is secondary to the issues F1 is facing," Christian Horner tells the BBC. "That will be picked up and addressed at a later date.
"We have raised some questions to the FIA," he added, "What I would say is that a confidential agreement regarding the technical compliance of a competitor's car is obviously something that raises questions. And I'm sure at the relevant time we will have a conversation with Jean to try to understand why and what that agreement consists of."