Red Bull and Toro Rosso against the testing request for Schumacher

Dietrich Mateschitz, owner of Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso, joined the Williams camp in opposing Ferrari’s request that would allow Michael Schumacher to test a 2009 version car. This is in the context of his return to Formula 1 in Valencia, later in the month.

The Red Bull teams are not willing to approve this request because Dietrich Mateschitz argued that even a 19-year-old rookie at Toro Rosso, in this case, Jaime Alguersuari, did not get this chance. Indeed, the young Spaniard made his F1 debut at the recent Hungarian GP.

“We requested permission for a test before the Hungarian race with Alguersuari on board but it was rejected,” said Mateschitz. “So why should we approve an exemption for a seven-time world champion? We are happy with Jaime [Alguersuari] because he did an excellent job for his debut.”

Helmut Marko, coordinator at Red Bull Motorsport, stated to the newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten that Michael Schumacher will encounter few difficulties adapting to the F60 and therefore doesn’t need tests: « Schumacher is known to be very competitive even in the new car. »

« Having him take an additional test is not in the spirit of the regulations. We have the same opinion, as stated in the regulations, and we do not accept this testing request, » added Marko. « And we are not the only ones with this opinion. »