Felipe Massa will join Michael Schumacher by getting some testing done before the season starts. He will get behind the wheel on Friday, taking over the F2008 currently being used by Valentino Rossi at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Massa last tested a car on December 16th when he drove an F2007 at Mugello.
The drivers aren’t able to test the 2010-specification cars until the first day’s action on February 1st. The teams will have a total of 15 days, which could present a problem for those wanting to share them evenly between their drivers.
Could this mean Massa will have seven days in the F2010 (or whatever it’s called) and Fernando Alonso will have eight?
Massa said in a statement:
As the car and the track were available I thought it would be helpful to go onto the track for a day to continue gaining confidence with the Formula 1. After the days in Fiorano and Mugello this will be a nice opportunity to get back driving on such an interesting and challenging track.
Felipe Massa
Read more: Massa completes F2007 test (Pictures)
BNK Racing
20th January 2010, 20:13
completely off topic….but an interesting article into F1 finances
if u check the link the graph at the bottom came as a surprise to me. i was under the impression ferrari spent more than that figure per year
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8436215.stm
David A
20th January 2010, 20:40
That was posted a week ago…
https://www.racefans.net/forum/topic.php?id=1345
sato113
20th January 2010, 23:53
why don’t all the drivers do this?
wasiF1
21st January 2010, 2:04
I think many teams won’t be able to supply them two years old car.
graigchq
21st January 2010, 1:34
“After the days in Fiorano and Mugello this will be a nice opportunity to get back driving on such an interesting and challenging track”
sounds like massa is trying to say that mugello is rubbish and he’s bored as hell going round and round there all the time lol
James_mc
21st January 2010, 1:51
So testing restrictions are to reduce budgets etc. Yet Ferrari insist on testing old cars. (Ok I know the reasoning behind the testing ban, but I’m just making a devil’s advocate point so bear with me lol!) Ferrari are now not spending their money economically, they are effectively wasting money by not testing up-to-date/current cars/parts….
[I hope someone can follow this!!!]
Adrian
21st January 2010, 8:56
I think it depends on who’s paying and where the money is coming from within Ferrari…
…the 2 year old cars are run by a seperate part of Ferrari (I think it’s still part of Ferrari anyway) for rich clients to drive.
Since the track has obviously been hired for the Rossi test I doubt it’s actually adding that much cost for Massa to test there too.
It could even be (although I doubt it) that Massa himself is footing the bill for this excursion…
cyanide
21st January 2010, 10:06
It’s more about the fact that Massa can get used to the G forces of the newer cars. I’m sure Ferrari can spare a few hundred thousand to get their drivers upto speed with newer equipment.
James_mc
21st January 2010, 13:00
Here’s an idea then – Massa and co to drive some ground-effect cars! There must be some lurking in the garages somewhere! :-D
wasiF1
21st January 2010, 2:05
I don’t understand if the drivers & teams test like this with two years old cars then how on earth does they SAVE MONEY!!!!!May be in the future many teams will do this.
PJA
21st January 2010, 9:12
After what happened in 2009 I think it would be unwise for any team not allow their reserve driver a least one day in the 2010 car. So if teams wanted to share the testing days equally between their race drivers they could have 7 each and the third driver have 1.
I understand that teams are only allowed to test 1 car per day but are there still able to change drivers during the day as a driver could have ½ day to keep the testing time equal.
Also if a team decides not to test on a planned day because of the weather is there enough scope in the testing days to rearrange it or can teams not test outside of the official tests now?
three4three
21st January 2010, 13:44
I agree teams should give their third drivers at least on of the fifteen days, and as you point out this would alleviate any potential problems would providing equal time to both drivers. I’m pretty sure they can do half days or however they wish to split the day up?
Derek
21st January 2010, 11:28
The 3rd driver usually gets the first days track time, just to do installation laps checking for leeks etc. All the cr*p jobs the regular drivers don’t want.
VXR
21st January 2010, 20:35
For those that may be a bit confused about Massa and Alonso testing 08 and 09 cars.
Article 22.1c 0f the current (2010) sporting regulations states.
“c) No track testing may take place between the start of the week preceding the first Event of the Championship and 31 December of the same year with the following exception.”* *goes on to explain new driver rule.
There are no restrictions on the number of days testing, only the mileage is restricted (15,000km).
Which means that from the 1st of January, running in an 09 car (08 cars are exempt because of 2 year technical embargo, but are still restricted to demo tyres etc) counts towards official testing. I would assume that Alonso went around corners, so it cannot be counted as straight line testing. He his therefore the first driver to test officially in 2010.
VXR
21st January 2010, 20:48
I should also say that if he was doing a promotional run (which may be the case) and was using demo tyres, he may then not be officially testing.