Just Say No

That, a ?just say no? approach is what F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone says Mercedes should have had when approached by Pirelli to carry out a tyre test in May.

A result of not doing this has seen them, and Pirelli, landed with a date in front of the FIA International Tribunal next week.

Ecclestone, as he told Adam Cooper’s blog, knows that with the tribunal having ?all the facts? we have to wait to see what they decide. He said: ‘Wait until the tribunal, they’ve got all the facts. If you offer me stolen goods, it’s up to me to decide whether I want to accept them or not. It’s not up to anyone to tell me what I should do. I should know what I should do.

‘Pirelli were doing the right thing, obviously. They couldn’t get out of a tyre problem, if there had been proper testing, which there should be, they wouldn’t be in this problem.

‘It’s only because there’s no proper testing that they’re in this problem. As people have been complaining, the obvious thing to do was to get out of it by testing. And they asked.’

Ecclestone did say that he didn’t think that Pirelli had done ?anything wrong at all? and insisted that his views were not based on the financial incentives that Pirelli offer F1.

What he did say though is that Mercedes should have said ?no? when approached about this suspect testing, if they had the ?testgate saga? would never have happened, he added: ‘I don’t care. It makes no difference to me. What is right, is right, you know. The one thing an unmarried girl has got is the right to say ‘no’.

‘You would have to reckon that Mercedes were in that position…’

Rumour has it that Michelin are being lined up to replace Pirelli in 2014, however this was played down with Ecclestone highlighting the long-term contract that F1, the FIA and ?most teams? have.

The FIA International Tribunal hearing will take place in Paris next Thursday.