If ever there was an illustration of how Formula 1 teams cannot agree on anything, it is the kerfuffling this year over the Young Driver test. For the last couple of years this has been held at Abu Dhabi, after the race there. However this year some of the teams did not want to do that because it would place too much stress on team members and so, after much toing and froing, that there would be a test at Silverstone after the British GP. That resulted in just three teams giving youngsters a run. Several others continue to plan for the test in Abu Dhabi, but others have now come up with the idea of running cars at Magny-Cours on the way back from the Italian Grand Prix, which will be more cost-effective and less stressful for all concerned than doing the testing in the Middle East. Others have still to decide whether they go to Abu Dhabi or Magny-Cours. Decisions will be needed soon as the cars will leave shortly for Spa, will then go directly to Monza.
To me, it seems to be more than just the teams being unable to agree as per usual, but that we are seeing the very limits of how far the teams’ crew members can be stretched under the cost-cutting regime which has seen the end of dedicated testing teams.
It is not only the young drivers who need testing opportunities. Pirelli have repeatedly pointed out that they would like more data from latest-spec machines. They now have a (2010?) Renault at their disposal, but 2012-spec cars would be better. Plus we have had the wrangling over in-season testing, which ended up being held at Mugello – a track without a lot of relevance to the 2012 race calendar.
Surely the answer would be to have a number of testing days in situ on the Monday following a Grand Prix. Most of the permanent European circuits could easily accommodate this (eg – Barcelona, Silverstone, Hockenheim, Hungaroring, Spa, Monza) so it should be relatively easy to allocate enough days to cover tyres, young drivers and general testing. It would have seemed easy enough to tag on a day or two of young driver testing after Hungary, since there was a five-week break from racing (although I appreciate that the team members want their holiday). And given that all the safety kit should still be in place because of the race the previous day, it would surely cost less than dragging it all out again for a dedicated test.
Or am I missing something?
“Or am I missing something?”
Yes you are, that is far too sensible for anyone to agree to.
Unfortunately the last four European races are back to back, which leaves no room after the first of the two races and everyone very tired after the second (This is the problem with Hungary). The last European race that is standalone was Silverstone, which was only race 9 of 20.
Generally you would want a young driver test to be at least race 14 (Abu Dhabi is 18) so that the drivers are driving decently developed cars (not dealing with gremlins) and it to be sufficiently close to the next season to evaluate their ability with a view to then getting a race seat.
If they moved Silverstone Hockenheim, Hungaroring and Spa back a week each that would create a double header with Valencia and Silverstone and leave Monza on it’s own as race 13 (10th September), which could then accommodate an immediate test. That’s the latest you could manage it in Europe.
Yes, I can appreciate that the calendar may need to be tweaked, but it must surely be workable. We had a gap after Bahrain which included the Mugello test, so there is space to re-shuffle a bit. And they could still do young driver testing at Abu Dhabi, since it has been done twice before and worked pretty well.
Spoken like someone who does not do the travelling involved…
Ha! Yes, I appreciate that, and was merely suggesting that there must be reasonable opportunities when the whole circus is already gathered at the venue(s) rather than trying to find additional dates and venues to drag everyone (and everything) out again.
Nice ta have you back Joe, speaking of which (and please delete this if I’m breaking some rules) does anyone know what happened to Peter Windsor’s The Flying Lap that was supposed to be back this week (yesterday)?
No idea.
Thanks for the reply. I hope it’s nothing to serious… gotta get my mid-week F1 discussion fix
From what I have seen it is a monologue not a discussion.
LOL
Paul, according to a tweet from Peter a while ago TFL will be back on Aug 29th.
Ah, thanks for that Mark, I don’t do teh twitter. Would’ve been nice if they’d updated the TFL/smibs website, that still said the 22nd even this week.
I like Peter’s writing, but he does have a bit of “istry” involving muscular visitors carrying baseball bats, enquiring about lucre.
Not just carrying them, unfortunately, if a certain Mr Lawrence is to be believed.
Allow teams to take another chassis to Grand Prix that have limited support events and have young driver tests instead……….
The team is 100% focused on the race at GOP weekends, they dont want the distraction of dealing with a rookie in addition.
The teams would be fine………
There are some occasions when the FIA needs to bang some team’s heads together!
The regs for testing need to be better defined, just as many of the tech regs in my view need re-writing from the other end.
Fundamentally, is Abu Dhabi the right track to gauge a driver’s talent?
I’ve thought about this some more. Perhaps this is a way for the owners of Magny Cours to demonstrate that the track is F1 standard?
Hasn’t Joe pointed out previously that the French want a GP? Is there perhaps behind the scenes jostling to see who should get government funding? By demonstrating the track is up to standard (without perhaps the same degree of government support as other options), they can get a more favourable position in the debate?
Or after the Italian GP use Imola? Would be nice to see F1 return there, even if in just a testing capacity.