Stefano Domenicali says that he believes that the Formula 1 teams should reconsider the amount of testing allowed.
“We are too much under the limit,” he said. “We believe we have to reconsider the testing. We need to consider the money we are saving compared to the additional money that we are spending at races as a result. If you take money away from one place, you spend it in another. We need to think about safety, young drivers and allowing drivers to test if there is the need for a replacement in the middle of the season, as happened last year.
Domenicali said that he would also like to see KERS return to F1 in 2011 but with systems that are much cheaper and the same for everybody.
joeblogsf1 
I agree with Domenicali on testing. It does seem ridiculous that F1 has less testing than Formula Ford. To me it seems insane that the rules mandate massively expensive cars then ban running them because that costs too much. Surely it makes more sense to compel the teams to build cheaper cars which can be done very easily and then open up testing which not only provides entertainment for the fans but an income for the circuits etc.
Everyone running an identical KERS system is barking mad though. That serves no more purpose than putting green stripes on tyres. It suggests encironmentalism but does exactly the opposite.
Unlimited KERS is the way to go. I never could understand why it was brought it in such a half-hearted way.
Simple solution…. (if everyone was as smart as me…..)
At the European races (truck-aways) allow a 3rd car, fresh engines, etc. and run them for 4 hours on Friday and 2-3 hours on Sunday (since there is no more warm-up testing on Sundays).
The track is rented, payed for and race-ready. Testing is done in one of the 3 days so no extra hotel costs. Little or no extra personnel should be required, certainly not a full test-team. Add one extra truck to haul the stuff. The promoter is happy since there is more stuff on track, especially the show-case cars.
Add to that, the requirement that only test or reserve drivers can drive these cars and there you go… both problems solved! (once testing starts in Europe)
Joe,
The limitations on testing had a big impact on the outcome of last season’s Championship when Brawn made a huge jump with the double deck diffuser. It extended the time frame for other teams to catch up.
In itself, if Ross Brawn was able to find some advantage through an interpretation of the rules (determined to be legal by the FIA), that’s fine. But, before testing limitations all the participants had the opportunity to make substantial improvements in their cars during the season.
As it was, McLaren, Red Bull and others significantly narrowed, or eliminated, the performance gap by season’s end.
Bert: A great idea, and a very simple solution to the problem. It would certainly make attendance on a Friday or Saturday more worthwhile and would seriously up the atmosphere.
I’d modify it to say that teams could, prior to the start of the season, nominate 6-8 races at which they were allowed to do this, no more than two of which could be outside Europe. This should allow any team not based in Europe (ok, only USF1 at the moment, but potentially Lotus in the future) to run extra cars where they like. It would also allow European teams to have one or two tests in the late-season fly-away events.
I’m just worried that this is too simple…
I also agree that the restrictions on testing have gone too far and Domenicali makes a fair point regarding costs, although I suspect this has more to do with their ability to react to the changes over some of the other teams, like McLaren.
Particularly striking to me is the silly ‘Catch 22’ scenario, by which I mean the way that it impinges on the ability of new drivers to come into F1. Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot.
I would like to see several FIA organised open test sessions for all teams at a designated circuit and open to the public.