Stefano Domenicali insists he has “no problem” with moves to clarify F1′s ban on in-season testing.

But the Ferrari team boss expressed anger that concerns about the Italian team’s pre-Valencia running at Fiorano had been aired by his rivals in the media.

Christian Horner said in Valencia that using a filming and promotional day to test the updated F10 had been “naughty” and breached the “spirit” of the agreement.

And when also asked about Ferrari’s testing, FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh said McLaren would do the “correct and honourable thing” by using one of the team’s aerodynamic days to try updates on the MP4-25 prior to Silverstone.

“I think that a lot of people like to speak,” Domenicali told reporters in Valencia.

“If I have any problem I take my mobile phone and I call personally.  This is my style, I don’t use (the press) to say something.

“If people want to be more comfortable then I know there are discussions in order to tidy up the wording, and I have no problem with that,” added the Italian.

(GMM)

Red Bull’s Christian Horner this weekend accused a “naughty” Ferrari of breaching the “spirit” of the agreement by testing its new exhaust layout at Fiorano last week.

Ferrari argues that the run was allowed because “filming and promotional” activities were taking place, and FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh on Saturday said the teams association will react.

“I didn’t think they (the rules) needed clarification, but for some they clearly do,” he said.

“It isn’t ambiguous in my English interpretation of it, but others obviously thought it was.

“That’s why we have to remove that ambiguity, and I think we are going to do the correct and honourable thing.”

Whitmarsh made clear that, like Ferrari, teams including Mercedes and Renault have also made “some arguable decisions” with regards to the rules about in-season testing.

“Once one does it then everybody feels ‘well, if that’s how you are going to interpret something, then I’ll push it to the limit’,” said the Briton.

He made clear that when McLaren tries its Red Bull-like exhaust layout next week, it will do so with one of its allocation of straightline test days.

Whitmarsh also thinks it is time F1 relaxed its approach to in-season testing.

“We had to take significant measures given the crisis involving the economy and formula one,” he said.

“I think now, as we can see signs of the economy improving, we can go back to testing.”

David Coulthard does not back Christian Horner’s view that Ferrari were “naughty” for testing at Fiorano last week.

Red Bull boss Horner has accused the Italian team of breaching the “spirit” of the in-season ban by trying a new exhaust layout at Fiorano under the guise of a filming and promotional run.

“I say fair play to them,” said former Red Bull driver and now team consultant Coulthard.  “The rules are the same for everyone,” he wrote in a column for the Telegraph.

Also running similar low exhaust layouts to good effect in Valencia this weekend are Renault and Mercedes — even though some of Renault’s new parts were delayed when a van en route from Enstone hit a deer.

Sauber is not running the layout, even though the C29 is featuring numerous improvements in Spain.

Pedro de la Rosa told EFE news agency: “We have taken a small step forward, while others have taken a giant one.”

(GMM)

Christian Horner on Friday accused a “naughty” Ferrari of breaching the “spirit” of the in-season testing ban.

The Italian team tested its new Red Bull-like low exhaust layout at its own Fiorano test circuit last week, under the guise of a “filming and promotional” day.

Indeed, Ferrari did distribute media photos of the event and even a video of Fernando Alonso driving the car with a camera mounted on his helmet.

“It was arguably within the letter of the laws but not within the spirit,” Horner, team principal of Red Bull Racing, told the Telegraph.

“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,” he added.

Horner suggested that if Ferrari was really just running the F10 for filming purposes, the car did not need to be fitted with its important Valencia update.

“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,” he predicted.

“I think it’s something that needs to be tidied up, because it’s effectively a gentlemen’s agreement, and it’s important that that should be respected.”

But it is true that the Ferrari was running with Bridgestone’s ultra-hard promotional tyres, and Alonso said the runs had been of little competitive value.

“I was running behind a car with cameras at 60kph so it was very stable,” the Spaniard joked.

“We did some laps also with no car in front, and ten cameras on the car and on the helmet, so it was not very comfortable to drive, and it was also the first time driving a Ferrari F1 car at Fiorano,” insisted Alonso.

(GMM)

Jun.15 (GMM)  British F1 pundits have rounded on Michael Schumacher after the eighth race of the seven time world champion’s comeback.

The 41-year-old German had already had difficult moments in 2010, but in Montreal – an event he has won a record seven times – he qualified 13th and on Sunday had a calamitous and pointless race.

“I think Schumacher has driven appallingly today,” said Martin Brundle, one of Schumacher’s former Benetton teammates, who now commentates for the BBC.

The Briton was referring to Schumacher being overtaken by Sebastien Buemi, both Force Indias on the last lap, and separate clashes with Robert Kubica and Felipe Massa that Brundle referred to as “naughty”.

“You have to treat the back of Schumacher’s car like the back of a donkey,” added Brundle.  “This is Schumacher’s worst weekend since he came back.”

The usually highly partisan German daily Bild newspaper agreed, describing Canada 2010 as ‘Schumi’s blackest lap’.

“Schumacher was humiliated in his comeback season like never before,” the report added.

Eddie Jordan, who gave Schumacher his initial F1 debut in 1991, commented: “The big story (of Canada) was that Michael Schumacher did not even make the top 10.

“That’s a big, big concern about the Michael Schumacher comeback.”

Former rival David Coulthard pointed out that, in his prime, Schumacher’s talents always shined on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

“In all honesty he looked a shadow of his former self on Sunday,” the Scot wrote in his latest column for the Telegraph.

“I’m not beating up on Michael.  But what is wrong with him?  If I had to guess I would say it is F1 that has changed.”

Coulthard refers not only to today’s harder and thinner tyres, but also the V8 engines and 18,000rpm rev limit, offering “no torque”.