Red Bull and Ferrari bosses clash

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and Ferrari counterpart Maurizio Arrivabene were at loggerheads in Friday's constructors' press conference as frustrations over the Scuderia's appointment of former FIA official Laurent Mekies continue to simmer. Ferrari have been accused of breaking a "gentlemen's agreement" over the issue.

Ferrari confirmed the appointment of the FIA safety director Mekies earlier this month.

The Frenchman played a pivotal role in the halo's introduction into Formula 1 and will report to Ferrari's technical director Mattia Binotto when he starts work in September.

Mekies' appointment restarted an argument that had been prompted by Renault signing FIA's F1 technical director Marcin Budkowski last year - the Pole was privy to details on cars up and down the grid, with teams upset that Renault stood to benefit from that knowledge.

Budkowski was put on a year's gardening leave, so that he could not immediately divulge the information, but Mekies will start work at Ferrari just six months after concluding duties with the FIA.

F1's Strategy Group held a meeting earlier this year to put in place an agreement regarding the future appointments of FIA officials by teams. Horner says that has already been disrespected by Ferrari.

"For me it is a big deal because the disappointing element about this is that we have a thing called the Strategy Group where the FIA, FOM and all team principals attend and we discussed the Marcin issue where there was great unrest about a key member of the FIA going to a team, in which case it was Renault," he said.

"Renault diluted that by putting him on an extended gardening leave but then ensued a conversation about it being unacceptable – every team found it unacceptable.

"There was an understanding and a clear statement by the teams to say, right, let's have a clear position that there should be at least a period of 12 months in the garden for a member of a team going from either FIA/FOM to a team or from a team to vice-a-versa."

Horner also claimed that Arrivabene's boss, Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne, had in fact pushed for the period of inactivity to be three years.

He added: "On one hand you get a team pushing for a three-year gestation and then a few weeks later we are in this situation. It makes discussions in that forum a waste of time."

Arrivabene had said that Ferrari had respected employment laws and suggested the FIA were set to come back with a final decision on the matter next month.

“There is nothing wrong with that," he said. "We were respecting absolutely local law, the Swiss local law, where Laurent was hired. Afterwards we went even further than that because we gave him six months of gardening leave.

"I heard comments related to a supposed or so-called 'gentlemen's agreement' and I think they are comments because a gentlemen's [agreement] under labour law is illegal. I thought that they were comments, just comments and no more than that.

"We gave a mandate to the FIA – to the lawyers of the FIA – to check national law and come back to us at the next Strategy Group. This is what the FIA is going to do at the next Strategy Group, which is on the 17th of April."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was also present, and appeared to back Ferrari, saying: "Marcin was involved in issuing technical directives just a few weeks before he decided to join a team and had a lot of insight.

"Laurent was involved in totally different activities that are not as sensitive, in my opinion, as with Marcin's. He is joining the team in seven or eight months from now and for me it is not a big deal."