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[LewEngBridewell]

Marussia to miss test after failing crash test

Oh dear.

It'll be a difficult start to the year for that team.

[spankyham]

I was against MV HRT & Caterham being allowed into F1. F1 has been hamstrung with ridiculous rules to accommodate these teams and, 3 years on they are just as pathetic as they were to start with.

[Hammer278]

Marussia to miss test after failing crash test

Oh dear.

It'll be a difficult start to the year for that team.

Lol this team sucked throughout anyway...they started on equal footing with Caterham and now they are behind HRT in terms of development and organization.

Caterham is going places, HRT is doing just about to stay on the grid, but I think it's time for Marussia to re-evaluate it's involvement and objectives, and GTFO.

[LewEngBridewell]

Caterham have certainly performed the best, and hopefully they'll be able to fight with some of the midfield cars this season. It's not as if they weren't in some of the races late last season!

Contrary to you Spanky, I was all for three new teams being allowed in. The more cars the merrier in my opinion. The gap between HRT / Marussia to the front is smaller than the gap that would've existed a couple of decades ago!

[andrew]

Caterham is in a better financial position than Marussia and HRT, so despite all 3 starting on an equal footing it's little wonder that HRT and Marussia/Virgin have been left behind. Plus Tony Fernandes just seems more into his team than the likes of Richard Branston was.

[What's Burning?]

ESPN F1:Lotus has yet to announce its testing plans for the final week after it lost the best part of four days at the last test with a chassis problem. The team was seeking an extra day but requires the agreement of its rivals.

I think it's BS, if a team misses testing they miss testing, that's why the dates are set. No one is crying for HRT or MV, so the rules shouldn't be bent for Lotus either.

[stonemonkey]

ESPN F1:Lotus has yet to announce its testing plans for the final week after it lost the best part of four days at the last test with a chassis problem. The team was seeking an extra day but requires the agreement of its rivals.

I think it's BS, if a team misses testing they miss testing, that's why the dates are set. No one is crying for HRT or MV, so the rules shouldn't be bent for Lotus either.

Did Merc not carry a day over from Jerez to do an extra day at Catalunya?

I don't think it's anything about bending rules, I'm pretty sure it'll be part of the agreement that a team can make such requests.

[Hammer278]

ESPN F1:Lotus has yet to announce its testing plans for the final week after it lost the best part of four days at the last test with a chassis problem. The team was seeking an extra day but requires the agreement of its rivals.

I think it's BS, if a team misses testing they miss testing, that's why the dates are set. No one is crying for HRT or MV, so the rules shouldn't be bent for Lotus either.

If I'm not mistaken, this requires a unanimous agreement correct? What better time for Caterham to literally show them the finger and keep their foot down. Hope this happens.

[Ichabod]

From BBC Sport

Ferrari and Red Bull have been forced to abandon plans for a different final pre-season test programme from other teams.
Both teams had planned to run at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya from 2-5 March, rather than 1-4 March.
But governing body the FIA has told them this is against the rules.
It breaks article 22.4 of the sporting regulations, which forbids testing in "the week preceding the first event", which is in Australia on 18 March.
This has been interpreted as meaning the week leading up to the week in which the first race is held.
FI testing rules
Teams may not carry out more than 15,000km of track testing in a year

Teams can test only at three official four-day pre-season tests and one three-day test approved by the FIA (this year, it is at Italy's Mugello track between the Bahrain and Spanish GPs)

No testing in the week preceding the first race

One three-day young driver test is allowed after the end of the season

Four one-day aerodynamic tests are allowed per year, but may be substituted for four hours of full-scale wind-tunnel testing

A team replacing a driver with one who has not raced in F1 in the previous two years can test for one day in preparation for his first race

Ferrari, who are struggling to understand a new car that is a major departure in design philosophy, initially changed their programme to start and finish a day later than originally planned.
Red Bull decided that would better fit their plans, too, and asked Ferrari if they could run alongside them.
Ferrari told BBC Sport the forced change was "not a big issue".
The team have not changed the programme for the first drivers, with Felipe Massa running on the first and third days of the test and Fernando Alonso the second and fourth.
Red Bull are following the same programme with their drivers, with Mark Webber starting the test on Thursday and also driving on Saturday, while world champion Sebastian Vettel runs on Friday and Sunday.
Some teams are slightly perplexed by the FIA's stance as last year a test was scheduled to take place in Bahrain that finished eight days before the first race. It was cancelled when the Bahrain event itself was called off because of civil unrest.

Usual FIA consistency

[spankyham]

Contrary to you Spanky, I was all for three new teams being allowed in. The more cars the merrier in my opinion.

Just to be clear, I'm for new teams, but, I'm not for pathetic back runners with no prospect of "making it". A team, to be accepted, needs to show the financial and human resources necessary to be an F1 team. They should be able to show some sort of qualifications (to get into Uni you need to graduate high school). Most importantly, they should be able to show a realistic plan that shows them becoming competitive. IMO none of the most recent 3 new teams got close to that - perhaps Caterham being the best of a bad bunch.

[Big Azza]

Contrary to you Spanky, I was all for three new teams being allowed in. The more cars the merrier in my opinion.

Just to be clear, I'm for new teams, but, I'm not for pathetic back runners with no prospect of "making it". A team, to be accepted, needs to show the financial and human resources necessary to be an F1 team. They should be able to show some sort of qualifications (to get into Uni you need to graduate high school). Most importantly, they should be able to show a realistic plan that shows them becoming competitive. IMO none of the most recent 3 new teams got close to that - perhaps Caterham being the best of a bad bunch.

I agree and further it by saying that there are plenty of other teams dying to get into the sport (what was that team from Serbia called?).

The fact that we had such teams eager to get into the sport but were overlooked for this failed operation that is Marussia Virgin is a tragedy. Surely if Richard Branson was serious about F1 he would have devoted more time and money to progressing the team from the back of the grid, but maybe I don't know enough about the Virgin operation.

[bud]

The 107% rule is in...they qualify, F1s had worse gaps in the past.

[Big Azza]

Good on you bud for your glass-half-full approach the situation!

I do agree that is a positive aspect. They have also lasted longer a lot of other teams - and will hopefully last longer than Super Aguri.

But it really does not seem that their approach is serious. I think Stefan GP would have been serious about it. They really really really wanted to be in F1, but instead we are stuck with half-arsed teams who don't seem to want to be in F1. At least Caterham has some drive!

But I guess some of the blame also goes to the FIA. You would've hoped that with the lack of testing initially, they would've been able to hold more test sessions to help get the teams up to speed. Just provide more support in general would be nice.

[acosmichippo]

I agree and further it by saying that there are plenty of other teams dying to get into the sport (what was that team from Serbia called?).

are there really, though? how many people are really willing to drop hundreds of millions of dollars, let alone have the appropriate knowledge and experience, to compete in F1?

[Big Azza]

I agree and further it by saying that there are plenty of other teams dying to get into the sport (what was that team from Serbia called?).

are there really, though? how many people are really willing to drop hundreds of millions of dollars, let alone have the appropriate knowledge and experience, to compete in F1?

I dunno.

Can't you tell from my posts I have very limited knowledge about this?

My reasoning on this matter is that if I did have the money, I would enter a team. So therefore, logic concludes that there must be squillions of people who can afford a formula one team who want to be Formula one.