Nico Hulkenberg has opened up over the Formula One proposals to increase the number of Sprint weekends from its current six per season. The German driver is not against the format of these weekends but rues the lack of practice track time drivers get in F1 in the modern era.
Twenty years ago, fans could rock up to Silverstone and on most Wednesday’s during the season and they would see drivers and team’s testing their F1 cars. Yet in an effort to cut costs and level the playing field, the FIA banned all in season testing in 2009.
Now each team is limited to two ‘filming days’ during each year with a total of just 200km allowed. Pre-season testing too has been slashed from twelve days in 2012 when the teams would head to the Iberian peninsula for the “shakedown” four days on the historic Jerez track, before heading North in February for another eight days in Barcelona.
Testing boosted to 11 days for 2026
With the huge regulation changes coming in 2026, the FIA has agreed to significantly up the pre-season testing schedule which begins with a “private test” in Barcelona for five days between January 26-30. The power unit manufacturers have requested this test be held behind closed doors to save any red faces should their R&D programme for the new powertrains have gone horribly wrong.
Bahrain will then host two three days tests open to the public, Feb 18-20 and Mar 6-8 where the all new cars will be put through their paces, but for 2027 it is expected pre-season testing will return to just three days once more.
This year pre-season testing was restricted to just three days in Bahrain, with each driver getting just three sessions in the car before they headed off to Melbourne for the first race weekend of the year. For drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz who joined new teams using different power units from their previous outfits, the lack of time in the car was problematic given the number of new challenges they faced.
Nico Hulkenberg has raised the issue of Sprint race weekends and how again they reduce the amount of time for practice for each driver. “In principle, I’m a fan of sprint races,” Hulkenberg tells RacingNews365. “I like the change-up, I don’t mind them.
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Hulkenberg says more track time needed
“Some tracks are a bit more suited than others. It’s obviously a topic for F1 and not an easy challenge to find the right balance between entertainment and the high-performance sport, to give teams and drivers the opportunity to find the ultimate performance.
“Whilst I feel I’m always open for changes and new stuff, we also still somewhat need decent practice time. “If you see where the sport came from, how much testing there used to be – now there’s virtually none.
“Plus, there’s reduced practice time already. Sprint weekends, you have even less practice. I just feel maybe there needs to be looked at or balanced somewhere that we get some track time somewhere else.”
Of course a Sprint weekend format gives the drivers just a single hour of practice before the connotative action starts on track. Some teams who have done their pre-race weekend simulations well find their car is in a good window for performance and needs just moderate setup changes to give the driver the balance they require.
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Sainz complains of a lack of time
Others may find their predictions on setup are wide of the mark and the challenge in just one hour to find the right balance is immense. Yet drivers forget that with the almost perfect reliability of the modern cars, an element of unpredictability has been stripped from the sport.
Limited testing and practice re-introduces some of this unpredictability as demonstrated by Lewis Hamilton’s record prior to the summer break. The seven times world champion failed to make Q3/SQ3 on three consecutive occasions and when added to the others has made 2025 the most unpredictable qualifying year in Hamilton’s long career.
Carlos Sainz who struggled for several rounds of this year’s competition to get to grips with the foibles of his Mercedes power unit has argued, the drivers and teams should be allowed a budget for on track testing together with simulation time.
“There’s no time,” Sainz explained. “I’m a bit just upset in general with this rule. We spend days and days and days in the simulator. It’s just a thought that I have that they could just put into the budget cap whether you want to run a simulator or you want to do testing and you choose where to spend your budget into that.”
F1’s private jet scandal
Its a little known fact but one of the busiest routes for private jets in Europe is between Monaco and the UK. Several days a week the jets are fetching and carrying drivers from their homes in the principality to come and train at the team’s HQ in the simulator. The FIA has a stated wish for F1 to go net zero by 2030, but in its calculations these many hundreds of flights a year are not included.
Of course the drivers must be careful not to spend more than 90 days a year in the UK or they become liable for tax on their incomes. Yet the private jets wait patiently on the runway to escort their guests back to Monaco before the clock strikes midnight when Cinderella’s coach returns to a pumpkin and the driver is credited with one day in the UK.
“For me, I don’t understand that side of Formula 1,” adds Sainz. “That rule, when they decided to ban testing, they developed 20 million simulators and spent the money in 20 million simulators to don’t go testing.
“It’s a personal thing, it’s not GPDA or anything; I don’t understand where it comes from. You could say let’s put 10-12 days of testing limit and each team uses them as they wish in which part of the season.”
Teams can now afford to test
The FIA increasingly restricted testing both pre and in season at a time when the smaller teams were struggling financially. In 2015 Force India chose not to attend on of the the pre-season tests due to the €500,000 cost associated with heading to Jerez.
Yet times have changed. With the advent of F1’s new owners, most cars have double or even triple the number of sponsors seen previously and each team has the financial resources to spend up to the cost cap limit.
Those who would gain the most from testing are the teams playing catchup and so a return to limited in season testing would in fact achieve the goals of FOM and the FIA to make the battle on track even closer.
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The 2025 Formula One season is hurtling towards its conclusion in Abu Dhabi and yet top driver George Russell has not contract with his Mercedes team for next season. Of course Mercedes will retain the services of the English driver but the terms on which the deal is extended are far from being agreed.
Russell will almost certainly secure fourth place in the drivers’ championship given he is currently 47 points ahead of his nearest rival in Charles Leclerc. He also has almost double the points of his rookie team mate and is the sole reason Mercedes remain in second place ahead of Ferrari and Red bull Racing.
Most drivers in Russell’s position would be nailed on already for a drive for the next couple of seasons given his pedigree and success. He has eight podiums this season so far including Mercedes only win at the Canadian Grand Prix…. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
