It has been reported that both Red Bull Formula One teams have joined Williams in opposing Ferrari’s request to allow Michael Schumacher to test the Scuderia’s 2009 car ahead of his return to Formula 1 at Valencia later this month.
Previously today, Williams had rejected the Ferrari’s proposal, siting the example of Jaime Alguersuari in their reasons.
However it has now emerged that both Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso have also rejected Ferrari’s request, based on the case of Alguersuari.
Red Bull owner, Dietrich Mateschitz revealed that a similar request had been issued to the Formula One teams, by Toro Rosso, to give the 19-year-old rookie some track time prior to his F1 debut in Hungary, but had been refused.
“We asked for a test permission for Alguersuari before the Hungarian GP and it was turned down,” Mateschitz told Autosport. “So why should we approve an exemption for a seven-time-champion after this?
“We are happy that Jaime did such an excellent job on his debut.”
Mateschitz’s sentiments were further supported by Red Bull’s motorsport coordinator Helmut Marko told the Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper that he didn’t believe that Schumacher would have any real problems in adapting to the Formula One cars of 2009.
“Schumacher is experienced enough to be fairly competitive in the new car very soon,” Marko explained.
“To let him do an extra test is not in the spirit of the regulations. If he indeed did his run last week on GP2 rubber it will make a huge difference”.
“We have the same opinion as stated in the rules, therefore we cannot agree with Michael getting a test exemption”, added Marko. “And we are not the only ones to have this opinion.”
