Vasseur: Bringing back private testing ‘impossible’ under F1 cost cap

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur says that reintroducing private testing in F1 – even just a handful of sessions – would be “impossible” under the sport’s current cost-cap rules.

Currently teams put their new designs through their paces during three days of pre-season testing, to which they may add two promotional “filming days” at any time during the year, with a 100-km restriction on mileage for each day.

In addition to this, teams are also requested to take part in several days of tyre testing during the season as part of Pirelli’s development programme.

However, teams may test as much as they like under the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) provision under the condition that they use a design that is at least two years old. Such sessions fall outside the cost-cap rules and are generally organised as part of a young driver programme.

The FIA and F1’s decision to restrict private testing during the season was driven by a desire to lower costs, level the playing field and promote closer racing.

• Read also: Vasseur credits Ferrari 2023 progress to ‘more aggressive’ mindset

In the past, wealthy teams with vast resources could spend countless hours testing, allowing them to develop and refine their cars at a much faster rate than their smaller rivals.

This led to a widening gap between the top teams and the rest of the field, making for less competitive and unpredictable races.

The restrictions introduced by the FIA forced teams to focus their resources on developing their cars during the official practice sessions, giving all teams an equal opportunity to improve their performance.

Vasseur explains why reintroducing private testing would not be feasible under F1’s current financial regulations.

"If you stay with the current budget cap, it would be more than difficult to reintroduce tests, because the cost of the test is mega," the Frenchman told the media earlier this year.

"If you start to do the testing, you will have to produce two times as many engines, have tons of mileage - in one test day you are doing the mileage of a [grand prix] weekend, and that means if you do 20 test days, it is another season in terms of parts.”

Vasseur admits that in-season testing would help struggling teams play catch-up with their rivals, but this would obviously come at a financial cost.

“It was true for us [in 2023] that when you are struggling, the fact that you have no test days at all, it is very difficult to come back - and it is also very difficult to come back when the correlation between the simulator, wind-tunnel and the track is not always mega,” the Scuderia boss said.

"With the cost cap, I think it is impossible to reintroduce the testing - we could discuss about one or two sessions, but don't forget that in parallel, we have the Pirelli test days, and we are doing a lot for Pirelli.

"When you have a look on the calendar, it is not just about the races, we have three or four sessions for Pirelli test days, and when you have to find a slot for the Pirelli tests, you say: 'It's already a lot.'"

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