I know there are engine and gearbox limits for all the teams and they can only run thier cars in pre season testing, practice sessions, qualifying, races and the 4 staightline tests given to each team. But can they run thier old cars as much as they want? For example from the BBC gossip column: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9591784.stm Sauber driver Sergio Perez will test for Ferrari at the team's Fiorano track on Thursday. The Mexican will be driving a 2009 F60 car as part of his training under Ferrari's young driver programme. Renault are willing to give Robert Kubica all of the mileage in a 2009-specification Formula 1 car that he needs if there is a chance of him coming back for the start of next season. (Autosport magazine) What are the rules for teams on doing this, can they give drivers as much practice as they want in F1 cars over a year old?
Am sure Ferrari will stretch the rules as far as they can................. It's not like they have much history of doing it............... I think the general rule is the teams can run cars that are at least 2 years old and not running on current spec F1 tyres. The idea being there is no point testing new components as they would not work on an old car and any even if they did the data collected would not be relevant to a new car.
Perez driving an F60 wont give Ferrari any sort of performance advantage. The test with Perez is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy and unsurprisingly Perez is already highly regarded by Domenicali. Ferrari now want to compare Perez against Bianchi - possibly to decide who will replace Massa in 2013. I know what you mean about stretching the rules of the testing ban but teams do this in other ways, like testing new parts at promo days. Ferrari did this with their EBD last year (and they arent the only team to cheat in this way). Even with FOTA's agreement to stop this happening, teams can still cheat in this way without the FIA punishing them (because they'd only be breaching a FOTA agreement).
Ferrari may be the best at bending the testing rules to their advantage because they know other teams won't complain as a way of guaranteeing their own rule bending tests. Should someone get better at bending the rules than Ferrari then something may be said. Its all one-up-man-ship at the moments
oh thats not what Im getting at at all. I think its good that the teams can train young drivers up this way.
