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[spankyham]

The question of more testing being allowed came up in Monaco yet again. A proposal was put forward by Ferrari (no surprises there) but was defeated yet again - although apparently it was a close thing. It didn't get much media as everyone was focused on the Merc tire test. Below is the article on the failed vote. But apparently that wasn't the end of it. Although not reported at the time, another proposal may have been approved which will indeed see more testing in 2014.

staff  wrote:">Ferrari's test relaxation proposal voted down

A proposal by Ferrari to ease F1's strict testing limits was voted down in Monaco.

...that teams be allowed to trade wind tunnel hours, straightline testing and promotional days in exchange for more actual circuit testing.

But Germany's Auto Motor und Sport claims the proposal was narrowly defeated in a vote.

Rumours of Ferrari's proposal were soon deafened by the controversy about Mercedes' 'secret' Barcelona test, about which Ferrari and Red Bull protested...

[spankyham]

GRAND PRIX 247 wrote:">In season testing set to return as of 2014

Formula One in-season testing is returning for the 2014 season, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

However, Auto Motor und Sport reported recently that a proposal by Ferrari to trade wind tunnel hours, straightline running and promotional days for actual circuit testing was voted down.

But Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is said to have told La Gazzetta, the authoritative sports daily, that an agreement to bring back testing was actually agreed in Monaco.

A report on the Italiaracing website said that the agreement is for four two-day tests, to take place during the 2014 world championship season on European circuits.

“This will make Pirelli happy,” read the report, “because they will have the chance to work on the tyres in the best way.”

“And also the motor engineers [will be happy], as they will be able to develop the new turbo V6s,” it added.

Nonetheless, AM&S insists that some teams – and not just the smallest ones – are opposed to the idea of extensive in-season testing.

“With 19 or 20 races a year,” an unnamed voice in the paddock is quoted, “and 12 days of testing before the season, an extra 9 days of testing would require a [seperate] test team.

“Such a team costs € 5 to 10 million extra, no matter how much is saved elsewhere,”

[stonemonkey]

Would testing on Mondays after a race require that seperate test team and how much would it cost to do that?

[Ferrari man 009]

There should be more testing, although I propose it is done on race weekends.

Why not, at all european rounds (except Monaco) can there not be testing on the Wednesday and/or Thursday before that race.

That would not only give the teams 2 days of testing per race but also by joining it onto the race weekend, could give fans a chance to watch the cars in action for 2 extra days. Of course the test days wouldnt be a sell out but for those who could, fans could see 5 days of action instead of 3!

Surely the costs wouldnt go up that much would they?

[Jabberwocky]

I think monday testing after the gp for young drivers

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[1Lemon]

Testing is almost entirely pointless considering the ridiculous amount of technical limitations the engineers have to work within.

[spankyham]

The problem with testing immediately before or after a race is it doesn't save that much when you're talking about doing it in Europe. When you're testing for an hour or so, you can manage with the race team. That's the point, that's where the savings are. Testing anywhere for an extended period of time means different rigs and equipment in the garage as well as different team members and engineers.

And, to whoever is going to post "but surely you can just use the people and equipment there?" - the short simple answer is no. The determining factor is the amount of time. It might work if you limited the test sessions to 2 for the day with a maximum of 90 minutes each. But, in doing that you prevent the purpose of adding testing time in the first place.

Testing needs to come back, and teams need the budgets to have test teams and rigs. It would be a good use of some of Bernie's money. To me it makes more sense to have tracks for test days (just like at the start of the year). Encourage TV crews to go by giving the media more scope to film. Let them get closer to the garages and simply forbid teams from covering and hiding stuff. That would be great for the public to see. The teams might not like it, but I don't mean letting cameramen go anywhere, just let them get a little closer and stop the coverups. It would also be a chance to see a couple of other tracks in a season - Fiorano, Imola, A1-Ring and Estoril for example.

[vaptin]

Yeah, some per-arranged testing days, the teams that won't turn up, will also be the teams who don't really run wind-tunnels and stuff.

A trade off though, between wind-tunnel time and testing time, sounds a decent idea to me actually.