Testing Ban

[Michiba]

Just want to put this out there and see what peoples views are.

I was wondering how the testing ban has affected the development of the cars this year, and how this will affect a teams strategy in years to come if F1 continues with the same restrictions.

It occcurred to me from the schumacher replacing massa thread, that it may be in the teams interest to have him drive for the rest of the year to test developments for the car (though if he were driving I'm sure he'd be driving to win given his nature). Neither WDC or WCC can be won by ferrari now, so it may be in their best interests (or any other team for that matter) to test during races.

Further to this, would any team want to try this for next year (if they aren't doing it already)? I'm thinking a team like FI, where they have the main driver driving for position, and the secondary driver testing during races. I think FI would be a prime candidate, since they wouldn't have much of a chance of winning the championship, by their own admission, they're driving for points finishes. So the benefit would be that they have one car giving them decent finishes and the associated benefits, whilst the other driver is assessing developments for future races.

This wouldn't apply to the bigger teams like Ferrari, McL, etc, who would want both cars as high up as possible for the WCC.

[mx_tifoso]

In reality this thread is not about the actual testing ban, but a way to circumvent it through testing during the course of a GP weekend.

And in case you didn't know already, teams do test during the GP's, albeit not during the race, since that is purely race time. Free practices are used to test and develop the cars. Nothing new about your idea.

[ISLAMATRON]

points being worth millions of dollars of TV money I'm sure the teams take every oppurtunity to try to score as many as possible... If FIF1 dont score any points I think they dont get any TV money(I think)... that is big time motivation.

But I'm sure they test new(2010) parts on friday.

As to the development of the cars, the test ban has significantly slowed it down, but the limitation on wind tunnel times and CFD have as well, those limitations have effectively favored quality over quantity and leveled the playing field somewhat. The old rules allowed the rich team to run as much and as may windtunnels as they wanted but not everyone has the same wind tunnel and CFD time as the rules allow regardless of bugdet... I think we can see this with how well FIF1 have been doing relative to the field this year, bad breaks notwithstanding.

[Michiba]

yes, I know that they test on friday. I have seen all the RBR style nose mounts during friday practices, but obviously this the amount of testing they can do is limited. And yes, this is a way to circumven the test ban, but it comes at a cost.

My point was would it be worthwhile to have testing during the races by the second driver, ie, would the performance gained from testing during races be worthwhile in the long run.

so here's the scenario I can see, with the example of FI. If both cars are racing throughout the season, they might both struggle to get into Q3 and thus in a position to get points during the race. Their development would be at most on par with other teams, so they are likely to remain in the low-mid tier group of teams.

Now if they were to test with one car through out the season, their no.1 car would be developed relatively faster and hence might be able to leap frog their rivals in terms of development and resulting race pace. So throughout the season, the no.1 car should move up the grid and gain points, whilst the test car remains at the back.

So given that perspective, which option would net the team more points?

[hollus]

That sounds like a clever idea to me. It would make a bit of a mockery of the race, imagine a car using three different noses during a race to test the effect on long stints, but surely would be worth it in results!