LONDON, England - Sebastian Vettel has breached his contract by kicking off his Ferrari career early.
Just a few days after his final GP with Red Bull, the four-times F1 champion on Tuesday (Nov 25) appeared in the Ferrari garage at the 2014 Abu Dhabi GP for testing, though in casual clothes.
He spoke to engineers, among them Pat Fry, and wore a set of Ferrari headphones to listen to the test action involving his 2015 team mate and friend Kimi Raikkonen.
BREACH OF CONTRACT
Vettel had expressed frustration the previous week when Red Bull denied him an opportunity to test the Maranello-built 2014 car at the post-race test session at Yas Marina in November.
Vettel said: "The (Red Bull) engineers suddenly panicked that I would take all these secrets to Ferrari."
Vettel's retaliation may have been starting his non-driving work at Ferrari ahead of time but Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko pointed out that it was technically a breach of contract.
Marko told Germany's Auto Bild: "Legally, it's not OK but I couldn't care less."
That is probably because Vettel has long been excluded from the details of Red Bull's plans for 2015.
Team boss Christian Horner told Austria's Servus TV: "Of course there is information in terms of future development that normally would have been available to a driver but this is such a competitive business that there is information that you (a driver) can take to another team.
"Sebastian is very professional so I don't think he asked us too many questions about the new car."