McLaren reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa bemoans F1 testing rules, advocates change – Formula 1 news
McLaren’s reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa has expressed his frustration over Formula 1’s testing rules, and advocates that an urgent change is imperative for the sport.
Formula 1 has limited the amount of testing during the season, which the Spanish driver believes is a good thing, considering the cost effectiveness of it, but he still feels that having only three days for the drivers to get used to the tracks, especially
when teams also have drivers with no GP experience is bit unfair.
The recently concluded Young Driver Test at Abu Dhabi is literally the only chance teams have to test their cars before February 2012. De la Rosa feels that this restriction of not allowing more testing and only letting no GP drivers perform the three day
testing is illogical.
“It is a paradox that after the Abu Dhabi GP the teams organised three test sessions for 'young drivers',” de la Rosa wrote in his column for the Formula Santander website.
“It makes perfect sense to me that in the highest category of motor racing you can test in a limited and controlled way to avoid the spiraling of costs which had occurred a few years ago, when private tests were unlimited and each week after a Grand Prix
we tested for an average two or three days a week with two cars,” he further added.
He admitted that cost reducing is also integral to Formula 1 but to limit the testing to three days that too with only young drivers is an exaggeration and needs to be looked into to find a perfect balance between cost effectiveness and healthy testing.
He believes that reserve drives like him should be given the opportunity in case of testing cars, so that they can have the experience of driving the cars they are most likely to drive in the near future.
He conceded that he failed to understand the reason why it has not been looked into as yet, but urges that testing rules need to be altered so that the sport can get a healthier growth and competitiveness.
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