Ecclestone Calls for F1 Test Limit

[Angel Tarragon]

Bernie Ecclestone, president of the Formula One commercial rights holding company SLEC has called for a 10-day limit on in-season testing by F1 teams.

Under the Ecclestone plan teams agreeing to the limit would be allowed to take part in six hours of testing during the Friday practice sessions at Grand Prix race meetings. Any teams wishing to test for more than ten days during a season, as Ferrari is currently doing, will forgo this right.

Ecclestone said. "If teams want to do more than ten days testing they can, but they have to sacrifice the Friday practice. If I was a team owner then I think I would have to think about that.”

If his plan is accepted by the teams Ecclestone anticipates making a formal proposal at the next meeting of the Formula One commission to have the necessary changes made to the sporting regulations.

 

[DaveStebbins]

Of course, nine of the ten teams have already agreed to limit testing to 30 days during the season. Only Ferrari are 'soiling the sandbox' by testing as much as they like and trying to gain an unfair advantage.

I like Bernie's idea. With the two-race engine rule, teams are running less and less over the three-day race weekends. With hours and hours of testing time on Friday, it'd give fans a real reason to show up all three days. I think it's a great idea, which seems rare from Bernie these days. It'll also be interesting to see what ideas the GPWC teams come up with later this year.