Fernando Alonso protested that just three days of winter testing before the start of the season is “not enough”.
In recent years, the number of days during which teams and drivers can test their new cars and get used to the new challengers after months of no driving has reduced a lot.
A few years back, Formula 1 visited Barcelona for basically two weeks. During that time, the teams had a total of eight days to prepare before the first race. Then, to reduce costs, Formula 1 shortened winter testing to just three days.
Alonso feels that is not enough and would like more time to prepare for the championship. To add to that, he underlined how using just one car that two drivers have to share reduces the time even more, just one day and a half.
“We have a very limited testing in Bahrain,” Alonso said. “I’ve been thinking all winter about this, how unfair it is that we only have one day and a half to prepare for a world championship.
“There is no other sport in the world, with all the money involved and with all the marketing and the good things that we say about Formula 1 and being closer and closer to the fans, [where that happens].
“I cannot understand why we then go to Bahrain for four days, which could be two and two for the drivers. If you go to three, which is not even, which is an odd number, you cannot divide between the drivers.
“And I don’t know why we don’t go with two cars. Because we are already in Bahrain and we race the following week.”
Mercedes driver George Russell also agrees with the Spaniard, saying that he understands “why we do that [just three days of testing],” but he thinks that at least two cars would be a better solution.
“Personally speaking, I don’t think three days is enough, because you have got to remember from a driver’s perspective, that is one and a half days per driver,” Russell said last year.
“I understand and recognize why we do that. I think three days with two cars would probably be a good place to be.”