Carlos Sainz is advocating for more on-track testing time. The Spaniard believes that the three test days in Bahrain are not sufficient for drivers, especially not for the six rookies, to prepare for the season. According to Sainz, simulators are not a good substitute for the real thing. The newly appointed GPDA chairman immediately comes up with a concrete plan for his wishes.
The amount of time drivers are allowed to test on the track is increasingly being restricted. Teams have long been allowed to test the new car for the upcoming season for only three days. This gives each driver just a day and a half to get used to the challenger. Drivers have the opportunity to clock up a few more miles in older cars, under the Testing of Previous Cars regulation, but this season there is also a mileage limit on this testing time.
According to Carlos Sainz, the new chairman of the drivers’ union, it is far from enough. “It feels strange that I’ve only been given a day and a half to test and now I have to race,” the Spaniard says in Bahrain. “It doesn’t feel like enough, it feels like very little. Ridiculously little, the amount of time we get in our cars before we go to a race.”
Frustration
The Madrid-born driver finds it particularly frustrating for the six rookies, who now have to start their debut season with only a day and a half of testing. “Of course, I wish them all the best and understand their frustration about the testing,” Carlos Sainz empathizes with the newcomers. “I understand how difficult this makes things and how challenging the start of the season will be for some of these guys.”
The teams are trying to compensate for the lack of track time by increasing simulator work, as they are allowed to use the simulators indefinitely. According to Sainz, the money now being invested in simulators could be better spent on additional testing days. “I’m not asking for too much. Eight, ten days where each team chooses its own testing location.”
“It’s nice to have a collective test, but my proposal would be to include the number of testing days and the simulator in the budget cap, and to see where the teams want to spend their money: the simulator or ten testing days,” Sainz continues. The Williams driver also knows where his own preference would lie. “Even though the simulators are good, they are not as good as some engineers or people are inclined to believe they are.”
