Ferrari blocked motor racing’s governing body, the FIA, from releasing the details behind the controversial settlement over the Italian team’s engine.
Although the FIA had not been satisfied by Ferrari’s defence of the legality of its 2019 engine, it also did not feel it would reach a conclusive outcome by taking the issue further than a private settlement. The settlement prompted the nine other teams on the grid to unite in writing a statement demanding greater transparency from the FIA.
FIA president Jean Todt said he wanted to release everything about the investigation, but the Italian team prevented him from doing so.
“If you ask me, I would love to be able to give all the details of the situation, but they [Ferrari] opposed,” Todt told Autosport. “So, I mean, they have been sanctioned but we cannot give the detail of the sanction.
“And clearly we could have said nothing. But we felt that it would have been wrong not to say that the Ferrari case had been discussed and that there had been a sanction.
“Honestly, it’s very simple. Very simple. We have put so much effort to come to our conclusions, which they [the teams] do not agree.
“Unfortunately, it is very much a fait accompli of technical matters, because our technicians say ‘we cannot for sure demonstrate as much as we should that they [Ferrari] were not legal’.”
Mercedes has since removed itself from the united group of teams which wrote the open letter calling for greater transparency.