Testing Ban has added bonus for Minardi

[Wrex]

One thing not mentioned so far, is how the testing ban will effect things, especially the smaller teams.

While the obvious savings are to the testing budget, Paul Stoddart will find an excellent way to get more TV coverage for his cars and added income by letting hosting country talent to test the cars on Friday.

F1 Racing.com has the story

MINARDI BOSS Paul Stoddart has rubber stamped changes for F1 in 2003 claiming they will liven up the sport.

"I think the proposals are good for the sport," he said. "It will liven up practice on Fridays and Saturdays at the very least. I think there is a little bit of help in there too for the smaller teams."

Referring to the plans to allow teams who limit their private testing from March to November to just ten days on track - Stoddart was full of praise.

"For a team like ours - we would like to run in a host nation one of that country's drivers - if he had a sponsor then it would be a straight commercial deal - we need the money and it's a good way of earning it," he added.

"This is actually quite a huge breakthrough and for me it's the main thing to gain from this meeting," he concluded.

Not a bad idea really.

[Red]

Not bad? It sucks!!! I really can't understand how would that help Minardi, other than stopping the others from doing better. It closes the gap, a little, however not by improving Minardi's performances. Sheese. Communism. Can't make all of them to perform better, then it's easier to make all of them to perform worse.

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Red
other than stopping the others from doing better. It closes the gap, a little, however not by improving Minardi's performances.

So the title of Wrex's thread is correct, Testing ban has added bonus for Minardi

At the end of the day, testing ban or not, the richer teams will do better as they have the resources for the best wind tunnels and test beds, the poorer teams, like Minardi will not be able to close the gap.

[Wrex]

Minardi will never be at the Top level, I don't agree with any change that would 'make it so'.

I do however, want teams like Minardi to survive, and if a little extra revenue can be generated, and a new young driver gets a chance to show himself, I'll vote for that anyday.

[BootsOntheSide]

The benefit may be negated by the reality of a testing ban- teams who can afford it will spend the extra money on superadvanced simulations and CAD/CAM software. I hadbn't thought about testing locals tho, maybe if they have a paydriver racing next eyar they could have s hootout between them in practice, or maybe say to a tester that if he gets within 1 second of the lead driver, he keeps the car for the weekend.

[Wrex]

Dont expect Williams, McLaren or Ferrari to take the Friday test option. I doubt Renault and Toyota will take part either.

This will only happen if at least 3 teams opt for it. I can see 3 teams doing it, but not all.

[f1manoz]

This will certainly help Minardi save a lot of money, while it will put the onus on the teams to iron out bugs at the track instead of tonnes of private testing a la Ferrari.

However, this certainly won't close any performance gap. The rich teams will remain rich, the poor will continue to struggle.

[Borzacchini]

Minardi will certainly opt for it but who else ? Maybe Sauber will since they don't test that much. Arrows undoubtedly if they will survive. Minardi has got to hope that two other teams will opt to do this, I doubt that this will happen. McLaren, Ferrari, Renault, Toyota, BAR or Jaguar almost certainly won't do this. This leaves only Sauber, Jordan, Minardi and Arrows...

[JR Ewing]

Jordan I would think..