Boullier angered by 'selfish' rivals blocking extra testing time

Fernando Alonso (ESP) McLaren MCL33. 28.02.2018. Formula One Testing, Day Three, Barcelona

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has lashed out at two of his counterparts at rival teams for voting against extra testing time.

Boullier was speaking as snow and heavy rain meant that Wednesday morning's pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was a total wash-out.

Problems with the medical helicopter being unable to operate meant the circuit remained closed until noon. After that, rain meant that few teams were willing to venture out on track.

As of 2.30pm local time, only three cars had ventured out on track. Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso and Marcus Ericsson all completed installation laps on wet tyres, before returning to the comfort of the team garage.

No one has yet set a timed lap on this third day of testing.

Teams only have two four-day pre-season test seasons scheduled before the start of the 2018 season in Melbourne. It makes the loss of so much preparation time a major setback for everyone.

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Team principals even met to discuss the possibility of extending the current test to a fifth day on Friday, Sunday or Monday. However, such a short-notice change would have required the agreement of all ten teams - which it didn't get.

"To change testing dates, we would have required unanimity," Boullier told Sky Sports. "All the teams would have needed to be in agreement to change the date.

"It appears that two teams did not want to change the date yesterday," he said.

"It's obviously wasted money," he continued. "We spent the money to be here. The track is booked for two weeks anyway.

"We had the possibility to move that day to another one later. We know the forecast is better on Sunday or Monday.

"We need these eight days to offer a decent show on-track for race one, covering reliability issues and everything we need to cover," he added. "That's purely wasted money on selfish interests."

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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.