General
Binotto: "No team would be happy to have to share her secrets."
Mercedes and Red Bull Racing are still eager to know what was agreed last year between the FIA and Ferrari. The Italian team just doesn't want to share that agreement, because according to Mattia Binotto they would otherwise have to share their secrets with the competition.
It caused a lot of commotion last year: after accusations of cheating, the Ferrari team was thoroughly investigated by the FIA. Eventually it was revealed that the governing body and Ferrari had reached a settlement and that no further details would be shared.
That, of course, is against the desire of the competition, which wants to know if Ferrari really cheated and why they came off so lightly. Binotto says that he is not going to share the agreement. "The answer to that is very clear. First of all there was no clear violation of the rules, otherwise we would have been disqualified".
Protecting confidential information
"Second, the reason we don't want to reveal the details is because what we need to explain is our Intellectual Property. It is the IP of our project, our engine, and I don't think that anyone in the paddock is happy to reveal secret information about its design and project", said the team boss at the press conference in Spielberg.
"The IP, its secrecy and the protection of our Intellectual Property are the reasons why we are not happy", clarifies Binotto. That just doesn't stop Red Bull Racing and Mercedes from banging on the door of the FIA.