Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Dennis frustrated by testing regulations

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Ron Dennis says he is frustrated with testing restrictions which are preventing McLaren from becoming more competitive.

McLaren switched to Honda power at the start of this season but has found itself with an unreliable power unit for much of 2015, which has also been off the pace at the majority of circuits. With the team struggling for mileage during pre-season testing, Fernando Alonso claims McLaren is only now around the same point Mercedes was heading to the first race of the year.

Dennis admits the restrictions on in-season testing are hurting McLaren’s chances of recovery, but says there are also other ways he feels a team should be allowed to develop.

“I think the frustrations I have with the regulations is that everything that has been designed to reduce costs has increased it and primarily because the cost of getting durability is endless evaluation on dynos and test cells,” Dennis said.

“I would like to go testing, I would like to have freedom in wind tunnels, freedom in CFD. When you are uncompetitive you have to develop your way out of it and at the moment the regulations are extremely constraining in that area.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.