Who Did What On a sunny Sunday morning in Monaco, Mercedes had the shine taken off their front-row lockout as it was revealed that they had taken part in 1000km of testing with Pirelli. It took place over three days immediately after the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona, May 15th, 16th and 17th, and occurred without being properly sanctioned by the FIA. Pirelli are allowed to conduct such test events under their contract with the FIA to supply tyres, provided they are running the testing programme and not the teams involved, so it would seem this isnt an issue. However, this is where regulations start to conflict; In-season testing is banned under current regulations, and there is to be no testing using the current 2013 specification cars in other forms besides very limited promotional events. Pirelli developmental testing has typically been conducted with a car of specification from the previous year, and involved no current race drivers or teams. However, this seems to contradict Pirellis prerogative to conduct 1000km in-season test events, provided the opportunity is offered to all teams. In this case, there seems to be a catalogue of errors at all stages. On Pirellis part, it seems that beyond an initial enquiry to the FIA regarding conducting a test event with a current car, made at the beginning of May, there was no further information from either them or Mercedes. On top of this, they reported that there was no confirmation that all teams had been given the opportunity to take part in the event, which they had only said could be possible on that condition and provided Pirelli conducted the test rather than the team supplying the car and driver to ensure sporting equity. This means that the test was conducted without knowledge or approval of the FIA, and in a non-transparent manner. For Mercedes, it seems that not only was this test done using their current-spec 2013 car, it may have even involved their current race drivers, though this is unclear. It was immediately after the race at Barcelona, which would mean it was their most up-to-date race package being utilised. Whilst it is not their job to arrange the test, they would have been well aware that other teams werent involved, and its fairly certain other teams would not turn down the offer of working on tyre development given their importance this season, meaning this falls into the grey area of moral obligations for Mercedes AMG.