FIA drops Ferrari test probe

F1’s governing body has dropped its investigation against Ferrari, but summoned Mercedes to the international tribunal over the ’test-gate’ saga.

In a statement, the FIA said its president Jean Todt - the former Ferrari team boss - had decided to "close the case" regarding Ferrari, because testing Pirelli tyres with a 2011 car "is not deemed to contravene" the rules.

However, as to Mercedes’ secret tyre test with its race drivers and 2013 car, "this testing may constitute a breach" of the rules, the statement added.

A hearing date for the international tribunal was not revealed.

Both Pirelli and Mercedes have denied the three-day, 1000km test at Barcelona last month was ’secret’.

But Red Bull’s Christian Horner has told Autosprint: "Why then did the drivers use different helmets?"

It also emerges that, on May 16 and whilst in Spain for the test, Lewis Hamilton ’tweeted’ a photo he took from inside a car of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Meanwhile, despite Pirelli saying several times in a recent statement that Mercedes did not test any 2013 tyres during the test, Paul Hembery has admitted that the tweak to be introduced this weekend in Canada was indeed tried by Mercedes.

"We just wanted to perform a check on a race circuit we knew to make sure there were no balance issues," he told PA Sport news agency, explaining that the tweaked tyre was running a different compound.