Renault team principal Eric Boullier has joined the call to increase the amount of testing in Formula 1, saying safety could be put at risk if teams are not allowed to test during the season.
Speaking in the Renault F1 Team podcast he said:
We need to have more testing, clearly, for many reasons. It’s not easy to keep up the development and we could face some safety issues, you never know, one day, by constantly bringing new parts to the car.
Using Friday for the test is not good enough and not long enough. I definitely would be in favour of finding a way of doing some testing.
We definitely need to keep the cost down. I understand that’s the reason why testing was banned.
I also think for another reason, and we are well positioned to speak about this because we have a rookie driver, for the future of Formula 1 it will be necessary to have more testing to allow the young drivers to step up into F1.
Eric Boullier
He expects his team to make progress after the next race when it introduces its version of the F-duct in time for the Belgian Grand Prix:
We have clearly focussed on a different strategy to develop our car. We have the blown floor which is a key element, and we have a new aero package front wing and other stuff, coming regularly on the car.
We will have the F-duct for Spa. That will clearly be a very big step forward for us because we know by simulations it’s worth more than a couple of tenths.
On the top of bringing new parts to the car and gaining some performance, you never know if what you’re bringing is better or not compared with the others. And it makes life for the race team more difficult because you have to set up the car and sometimes change it drastically.
So even for the driver it’s not easy to handle every weekend. But it’s part of the game now, it’s Formula 1 and you have to deal with that.
Eric Boullier
Read more: Willis wants testing return
John H
26th July 2010, 11:11
“Friday for the test is not good enough and not long enough”
Why don’t they forget about the gap between FP1 and FP2, and make it half a day of practice on a Friday? I’m not sure what support race is usually in between but I’m sure it can be moved to later in the day.
Richard Brown
26th July 2010, 11:20
I don’t really think that would make much difference. The teams simply have lunch during that period – fair enough an expectation – and even during the full day pre-season tests there’s a lull at around 1-2pm for lunch and a break, so really you’d end up with the same thing happening.
Also, an extra hour or so won’t help if you’re parts and equipment fundamentally don’t work, you’re ultimately stuck at the racetrack, you can’t whisk off to get a few hybrid parts like teams can do pre-season, as you’re limited on what you can bring these days.
nelly
26th July 2010, 14:09
Or have two extra 1 hour 30 minute sessions on the Thursday before the weekend to further test parts? Probably wouldn’t work though as it would cause logistical issues if there were two races a week apart I suppose. And they’d still be limited on what they could bring or change.
Oli
26th July 2010, 11:13
Another new front wing?? Must be about the 157th edition by now
Richard Brown
26th July 2010, 11:23
*11-12 noon. Woops.
Patrickl
26th July 2010, 12:00
If they finally learn to calibrate windtunnel and CFD findings with on track performance they can do fine without testing.
BasCB (@bascb)
26th July 2010, 13:17
Interesting, now we have McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes all calling for more testing, with Willis for HRT being in for it as well.
Almost half the teams, that will make for interesting discussions at the FOTA meetings.
matt90
26th July 2010, 13:19
The safety angle seems a bit like clutching at straws for an excuse. At a test event they are just as likely to have an accident if testing a new part. I suppose it is slightly more likely to fail when run at racing speed for race distance, but I imagine testing would include a simulation of a race anyway.
Its Hammer time
26th July 2010, 14:44
Can someone ‘in the know’ tell me what the issue would be with adopting moto-gp-style in season testing.
Test AFTER the race, on the monday, for the whole day, on the circuit they just raced on. Candidate European tracks within 3 hours flight of UK/ european HQs for parts and middle of the season time slots include Barcelona, Hockenheim, Turkey, Silverstone, Spa etc.
postives…
*It would be a very cheap way of going testing and would be fair to all teams.
*It would mean the teams don’t ‘over learn’ a circuit which produces marginal performance on race day (part of the reason Barcelona is so boring is that teams hammer round there for days in the winter and know the circuit very well).
* It would be an opportunity for young driver evaluation & would keep test drivers race ready.
* An extra (cheapish) day of F1 track ction for the long suffering fans after the race weekend.
* It would allow teams to test developments which would improve the baseline performance of a car without allowing them to finely-hone track specific modifications (which is an enormously expensive process and only aids the rich teams.)
I have been wondering this for a while…
TH
26th July 2010, 14:52
Brilliant suggestion.
squid
26th July 2010, 16:43
Sounds really good.
USFail1
26th July 2010, 15:42
Its Hammer time – I agree that this is a brilliant suggestion.
Can someone please respond with legitimate reasons this wouldn’t work? Keith? Help here? I think you could even send the primary drivers home and leave both cars and the test driver and test team mechanics at the track. Maybe that isn’t the right way, but who knows.
Ledzep4pm
26th July 2010, 16:59
Surely the best way to test would be two three day events during the season. Maybe 1 before Barcelona so the teams can test, their big updates on a known track to gain valuable data. This may help level the field befor the race so we don’t see a situation where one team dominates *Cough* redbull.
Dianna
26th July 2010, 23:13
Michael Schumacher would be the 1st to agree.He was out testing 6 days a week at Ferrari as he cannot use a simulator.
Of course this is a big drawback for him now,a huge drawback.He for one needs REAL testing in a REAL car on track.
Good point about the testing practise needed for the new F1 drivers.Why does the FIA keep making all these stupid rules,they are spoiling F1,not just for the teams but for the fans.