Formula One / Ralph Ellis / 04 August 2009 /

The championship leaders were one of three teams to turn down Ferrari's request for testing time with Schumacher. Ralph Ellis wonders whether the tough talk was a mistake.

It was Gordon Strachan who introduced me to the art of playing tough. He was Coventry manager when Chelsea turned up at Highfield Road with the wrong kit.

It was 1997, and for some reason they'd arrived only with their blue shirts, and were stunned to find it would clash. (A simple mistake to make. After all Coventy are well known as the Sky Reds!) Anyway, without any alternative, and with no Chelsea away shirts on sale in the local JJB, they asked Strachan if he'd help them out by agreeing to change themselves.

Strachan said no, forced Chelsea to play wearing Coventry's away kit with plasters over the badges, and promptly collected the three points with a 3-1 win while Ruud Gullit, Frank Leboeuf and Mark Hughes threw a collective paddy about the lack of co-operation.

I thought of Strachan this morning when I read of the hard line that both Williams and Red Bull have taken against Ferrari's attempt to ease Michael Schumacher back into Grand Prix racing. The fiery little Scotsman would surely approve.

With Formula One going through an enforced three-week shutdown, Ferrari asked the other teams if they would allow Schumacher to do some testing in Felipe Massa's car. Six of their rivals sportingly gave the go-ahead. Williams, Red Bull and their sisters Torro Rosso said an emphatic no.

The veto was led by Red Bull's billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz, who put his reasons quite simply. "We asked for permission for a test for Jaime Alguersuari (before the Hungarian Grand Prix) and it was turned down," he said. "Why should we then approve an exemption for a seven-times world champion?"

It's a big contrast to the modern, nicey, nicey approach. Throwing the ball back to the other team after an injury is commonplace. Only this week Andrew Strauss agreed the Aussies could have a replacement wicket keeper when Brad Hiddin got injured before the start of the Edgbaston Test. And Ferrari had indeed been among those who insisted that Torro Rosso's new teenage driver Alguersuari shouldn't get any extra chance to drive his car.

But might it backfire? Schumacher is a fiery enough competitor at the best of times, but wound up by the lack of co-operation he could be a bigger threat - especially as the circumstances around his comeback are so emotional, linked as they are to Felipe Massa's horrific injury.

Red Bull are [1.4] favourites to win the constructors' championship, and have shown tunnel vision by refusing to help a rival manufacturer threaten their ability to collect points. And what would either Sebastien Vettel or Mark Webber, both priced at around [3.7] to steal the drivers' title from Jenson Button, gain from assisting Schumacher's return?

The lack of practice makes the German maestro's comeback even more of an unknown quantity. He's currently priced between [2.62] and [5] to win one race before the end of the season and I've already laid it at [2.6]. Red Bull can be as red-blooded as they like, as far as I'm concerned!

Five things you might not know about Red Bull...

1. Red Bull paid Ford just one dollar to buy their racing team, then called Jaguar Racing, in 2004 - but they had to guarantee to spend 400million dollars developing the team in the next three years.

2. Austrian owner Dietrich Mateschitz, now boss of the F1 team, discovered the drink when he was travelling to Japan selling toothpaste.

3. The team's first podium finish was embarrassing for boss Christian Horner. He'd said before the 2006 Monte Carlo Grand Prix that if their car got into the top three he'd jump in the swimming pool naked. He lived up to his bet (although wore a red cape and nothing else).

4. Red Bull the company spend heavily on their two Grand Prix teams - overall they reinvest 30 per cent of their annual £1.7billion revenue on advertising and marketing. Coca Cola spends 9%.

5. The team's chief technical officer Adrian Newey studied astronautics at Southampton University. He was poached from McLaren after they refused to match a £5million a year salary package.

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