It is the chicken and egg conundrum to be honest. Unlimited testing produces some amazingly quick cars over the course of a season and raises costs astronomically.
Then of course there is the other side of the coin: With limited or no testing, teams will struggle to shake down their cars as developmental parts are added during the year and this could result in many cars not finishing races which would be a bad thing for the show.
The cost-cutting measures discussed between FOTA and the FIA are set to take affect prior to the season opening race in Australia but the teams now would like to see a revision to the testing ban. GMM quoted a team principle as saying:
“It’s not in everybody’s interest to see only five or six cars finish races, so we’re trying to get an agreement on a change of the rules for 2009,”
I tend to agree that testing should not be squelched to a level that could produce some erratic reliability issues and while it seems to the the low-hanging fruit of cost-cutting measures, perhaps there is a compromise that would allow teams to test economically and to prove the reliability of their cars for a good show. Any ideas?
