Manor racing director Dave Ryan rues the current lack of testing opportunities in Formula One, describing the situation as “one of the things that’s wrong with the sport”.
This year’s winter testing was cut from 12 to eight days, with only four more allowed in-season. While Ryan was pleased with what Manor could achieve during this week’s Barcelona post-race session, the ex-McLaren man remains frustrated by the little track time F1 teams can have outside race weekends.
“We have had a great two days actually, really productive, just methodically going through the car and trying things out,” Ryan said. “Pascal [Wehrlein] did a really good job on the opening day, the team really worked well and we were able to go through a lot of stuff.
“[Development driver] Jordan [King] did a lot of work as well, which again means a lot of data that engineers are able to look at just to check various data points.
“Any time you can test is an opportunity. We get so few opportunities to test these days and I think that’s one of the things that is wrong with the sport. We really do struggle in terms of having the opportunity to get on the track and methodically go through things.”
While Manor has taken a major stride forward this year in terms of performance, the British outfit is still one of two teams - along with Sauber - yet to score any point in 2016.
Asked whether the Swiss outfit’s absence from testing this week could give Manor an edge, Ryan replied: “Sauber did a good job last weekend, didn’t they? I don’t think like that at all. They are still a good team even though they were not here and our job is to compete with everyone.”
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