The modern era of Formula One is very different from the world into which Lewis Hamilton landed in 2007. Then track testing was unlimited and most Wednesdays during the F1 season would see an array of F1 drivers at Silverstone testing their current cars.

In fact Hamilton had put in tens of thousands of miles in testing the previous year and was more than familiar with his debut season car than any rookie today could hope to be.

The year Hamilton debuted, the FIA decided as part of its cost cutting programme to restrict in season testing to just 30,000 kilometres per team. These were the days when being a test driver for an F1 team was a full time job as the combined number of kilometres run in tests came to a whopping 411,012 kilometres.

 

 

 

Unlimited testing in F1

Pedro de la Rosa topped the list of drivers running the most testing days in 2006 with a whopping 54 days for McLaren and he was closely followed by Renault test driver Heikki Kovalainen with 47 and Michael Schumacher completing 45 days testing for Ferrari.

From the drivers doing the top 15 number of test days, seven were prospective young drivers and four were to get a full time F1 drive in 2007. Robert Kubica was promoted to BMW Sauber while Frank Williams was so impressed with Wurz’s performances in testing that he got promoted to race driver in 2007. His testing stint with Williams revived his F1 career.

Anthony Davidson then got a drive with Super Aguri and Heikki Kovalainen replaced Fernando Alonso at Renault, again after after a very impressive stint as Renault test driver.Yet drastic change was just around the corner.

For these drivers being a test driver contributed heavily to giving them a slot on the F1 grid. Anthony Davidson reflected on these times: “We used to test for four days with three cars in Barcelona or even in Bahrain, They were fantastic times for test drivers.”

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Third F1 car allowed

At that time the teams below P5 in the championship were allowed to use a third car in free practice sessions but on the whole the teams preferred to focus on just the two cars and drivers who would compete in the Grand Prix and their setup, which meant the third car and test driver made just a few outings here and there.

Drivers who made their names in the third car on Friday practice included Robert Kubica and Anthony Davidson regularly topping the timesheets. Sebastien Vettel also made a big impression on a Friday, by topping his first ever practice session.

In 2007 not only were the teams restricted to 30,000 kilometres but they could only take one car now to in season testing. The third car allowed on Friday practice was also scrapped and this had a huge effect on the aspiring drivers.

The top 15 F1 drivers completing testing days no longer contained any aspiring F1 hopefuls because now with just one car at testing, the race drivers were given preferential treatment. This was evidenced by Pedro de la Rosa who completed the most testing days in 2006, now the McLaren man fell to just 19th with just 20 days testing in total – 34 less than the year before.

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The following year saw the FIA ban in season testing completely, a state of affairs which has remained pretty much the same ever since. Testing was allowed after the final race of the year and during a prescribed twelve day pre-season officially organised test, but in season running was limited to just a few hundred kilometres a year at ‘marketing’ or ‘filming’ days.

However, the FIA regulated the teams could test for an unlimited number of days with what is known as ‘previous cars’. These are specified as cars built under the “technical regulations of any of the three calendar years falling immediately prior to the calendar year preceding the year of the championship.”

So in 2024 the teams can test with either current or test drivers an unlimited number of days with their 2022 cars. While these kind of tests have been predominantly been used for young driver development, Red Bull this season decided to run the RB18 for broader reasons.

Max Verstappen tested at Imola ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in an attempt to better understand some of the kerb riding difficulties the car has displayed this year.

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Ferrari boss questions Red Bull test

With the car design regulations remaining fairly stable from the introduction of ground effect cars in 2022, more can be gained by the teams using previous cars in testing than when the step changes each year are significant.

Yet some teams are concerned with this development as evidenced by Ferrari boss’ views on the Verstappen test. “You can differentiate the TPCs (Testing of Previous Cars) you do with your racing drivers because this, for me, it is more development than something else when you do a TPC one week before a race,” said Fred Vasseur.

“I am not complaining about them [Red Bull]. It is by the regulation, and it is completely OK, but it is more development than something else.

“If we have to police it, we will have to split the two aspects: the days we are doing with our drivers and the days we are doing with our non-racing drivers.”

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FIA consider previous car testing restrictions

This was picked up at the last meeting of the F1 commission as the FIA are considering restricting previous car testing for current full time F1 drivers. For young drivers the testing is set to remain unlimited.

When running previous car tests, the teams are not allowed to bring experimental components for the current car. The car must be of the specification of its year although setup changes can be made.

“No test parts, sensors, instrumentation, test software, component changes, operational tests or procedural tests will be permitted which give any sort of information to the Competitor that is related to cars of the current Championship or cars complying with TCC,” states the FIA regulation.

Yet the 2024 cars are not too different from those in 2022 and given the narrow optimal performance window, testing in a 2022 car will bring benefits to a current full time F1 driver.

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The results Norris needs to win the F1 title

Lando Norris who lies second in the Formula One drivers’ championship now lies 78 points behind leader Max Verstappen. Much was made of the fact that at the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren instructed Lando to hadn’t over the lead of the race to his team mate due to the fact the Brit had benefited from the timing of the team’s pit stop decisions.

Had McLaren backed Norris given he is favourite amongst their two drivers to challenge Verstappen, the lead would now be just 71 points. This together with the crash between Norris and Verstappen in Austria cost the British driver between 18 and 25 points more, so the deficit could have been just 46 points.

So what is the extend of the challenge for McLaren and Norris to chase down the F1 world champion by the end of the season and how does this fare with the sport’s greatest ever come back season long title wins? READ MORE