Rookie F1 test drives likely for FP1 next year

[John S]

Extra half hour, more tyres & driver swaps to encourage newbies.        

AUTOSPORT can reveal that F1 teams have approved a change to the sport's regulations that will encourage outfits to run test drivers during an extended first free practice session.

The matter was discussed during a meeting of F1 think tank, the Sporting Working Committee, ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Teams voted in favour of the idea, which will result in first practice being extended from 90 minutes to two hours.

To further encourage teams to run test drivers, the rules are also to be changed to allow teams to swap drivers during the session itself.

This means teams can ensure their regular race drivers are not hampered too much by having to sit out the session, and can take over from any testers that run early on.

Teams will also be handed an extra set of tyres, which can only be used during that portion of running, for the first 30 minutes of the session.

Having been approved by the teams, the matter now needs to be ratified by the FIA World Motor Sport Council, which is meeting in Croatia next week.

By Jonathan Noble and Dieter Rencken, AutoSport.com, Today.

[Scott]

I'm not sure I understand.  The session will be extended by 30min only for those teams who use their reserve driver or a test driver?  If they choose not to, do they only get to run 90min?

Quick changes are one thing if the drivers are the same size, but otherwise, then what?  Swap out a seat and adjust pedals and stuff?  That can take a while I guess? 

Watch for cloned bodied drivers next season as reserve drivers.   

I do like the idea though, just wish the teams would do it anyway and not have to be bribed with extra tires and time.  I would almost rather see an entire FP dedicated to reserve drivers.  Either an extra one, or maybe FP2.

[John S]

I think this is also about extra income for some of the cash strapped teams, they will be able to sell the seats on Friday to young drivers with cash. I'm sure it only takes a short time to change seats and pedal settings for rookies and the normal driver.

Top teams, indeed any team, will be able run their official 3rd drivers or simulator jockeys as well to get a better understanding of the correlation between sim results and the real world.

 

[Scott]

Teams with more than one test/reserve driver might lend out their other driver to small teams that weren't able to get a pay driver perhaps as well?  (not sure how long the list is of pay drivers waiting in the wings for a 30min run)

[Alianora La Canta]

This rule is great for drivers who resemble their racing colleagues, but not for drivers of a completely different shape (short drivers in places like Force India where the racers are over 6 feet, tall drivers in places like Sauber where both racers are quite short). This method worked in 2003 when there was an hour's gap between the "rookie" session (which was a proper hour long) and the non-"rookie" session.

The teams also need the time to develop their cars, as F1 is falling behind in the technological development stakes, so I suspect there won't be too much pressure to restrict driver line-ups. Yes, it means some teams will not use rookie drivers, but in a context where most seats can only be obtained with huge wallets (with little to no reference to readiness for F1), that's not the downside it would be in a properly functioning series.

[F1fanaticBD]

Yes running around 30 minutes with a new set of tyres (I wonder, will the teams be able to make them last for 30 minutes & if you have two compounds for the race, which compound will be supplied, the harder or the softer  ) will give the teams pretty good amount of data for the weekend, but how much of that data the team may be able to use within two days in the race. 

[Irisado]

I'm not sure about the practicalities of this.  Swapping around settings to suit different drivers during the same session doesn't sound like a recipe for success to me, and what happens if one of the practice drivers crashes his senior colleague's car into a barrier?  The risk of that will be as present as it is now, only worse if it happens in the session before the race driver has had his turn behind the wheel, as he would still lose the morning session.