“Next year we have a new car” – AlphaTauri and Aston Martin are two teams to have advocated for longer pre-season testing for 2022, the year the new regulations kick in.
Franz Tost, team principal of AlphaTauri, wants pre-season testing in 2022 to be longer as compared to the three days this season at Bahrain. This is significant with the new regulations kicking in, which will bring new cars on to the grid.
“During the season, we will sit together, and then we will decide. Next year we have a new car and therefore I don’t think that three test days will be enough.
“But we have to find a good balance between the number of the days and the costs because 2022 will not become quite a cheap year. Therefore we have to take everything into consideration.”
Aston Martin second proposal by AlphaTauri
Tost’s Aston Martin counterpart Otmar Szafnauer echoed his sentiments. He cited the pandemic as the reason the pre-season testing was shortened this season, along with the costs involved. Szafnauer also spoke about the benefit of testing in Bahrain vis-a-vis the traditional ground Barcelona.
“Like Franz says, we’re going to have an entirely new car next year and that should go into considering where and for how long we test next year. I think three days was appropriate for this year with what happened in 2020, the pandemic, and reducing the amount of development in the car.
“The weather is hard to predict [during testing]. [On Friday] we had the sandstorm in the afternoon which wasn’t ideal, but like Franz says, you go to Barcelona and it could have been wet and cold. So I think we finish off here, and then decide what’s most appropriate for next year at a later time.”
