Testing midway through the season is banned this year under the new rules but Ferrari submitted a special petition to all of the teams asking that an exception be made so that Schumacher can acclimatise himself with the 2009-specification car ahead of his return to grand prix racing.
FOTA vice president John Howett told Speed TV: “I believe all FOTA teams have agreed to accept their request. The situation for Felipe is very unfortunate and this is a sporting gesture which we are confident Ferrari will respect.”
Schumacher has already tested Ferrari’s F2007 chassis as Ferrari made use of a loophole in the regulations and ran a version of the car developed by their F1 Clienti department at Mugello on Friday.
The seven times world champion completed 67 laps and posted a best time of 1:23.736, it was the first time he has driven a Formula One car since April 2008 when he tested for Ferrari in his role as a consultant.
“It’s a great thing getting back on the track with an F1 [car] even if this was a car from 2007 from the F1 Clienti department with slicks usually used in GP2 and obviously there is no real point of reference,” said the German.
“After a couple of laps I was able to drive constant lap times and I’m happy with the performance. Now we’ve got to see how my body and the muscles respond in the next days.”