One of the most important changes in the sporting regulations concerns the mileage limit for filming days, which will increase from the current 100 kilometers for each of the two allowed sessions to 200 kilometers starting from the next season. Considered as days dedicated to promotional filming, these sessions have often been used for the shakedown of new race cars before the winter testing session. It’s also essential to remember that during these events, the cars use demonstrative Pirelli tires, and it’s not possible to test components that haven’t already been used in at least one practice session of a World Championship race.
This news will undoubtedly be welcomed by the top teams, who will have more additional kilometers to verify not only the proper functioning of the new cars but also to accumulate more data following a significant update that didn’t provide the desired results during a race weekend. It’s a small advantage for the Scuderia Ferrari team, which might choose to carry out these days at the more challenging Mugello circuit, rather than the Fiorano track, which has been preferred for logistical reasons and the number of laps that could be completed in previous years.
This is a small step towards “devirtualization” of a sport that desperately needs to level the playing field. The decline in Formula 1’s social media following is the first symptom of the gradual detachment of the audience from a discipline that no longer offers unpredictability.
Perhaps the best way to balance the power dynamics in the sport is not through a drastic reduction in testing sessions, which is the direction taken with the increasing number of sprint weekends, but quite the opposite. The specter of rising costs associated with on-track testing could be mitigated through a limited number of kilometers that each team could complete during the year based on their constructor’s championship position, similar to the Aero Test discipline. In essence, the number of kilometers available to teams would be inversely proportional to their position in the constructor’s championship.
With testing banned, some teams are forced to sacrifice several race weekends to try to close the gap with their competition. Think of the growth of McLaren, a car that struggled at the back of the grid in the early rounds of the season but then grew exponentially from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards. The growth curve of the Ferrari SF-23 has been less dramatic but equally evident.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
The possibility of testing updates in private sessions could allow teams to accelerate their understanding of the car, compressing the growth period. Despite increasingly sophisticated simulation tools, the virtual environment can’t guarantee perfect reliability in replicating the car’s behavior. Porpoising is a practical demonstration that advanced team software couldn’t detect this dynamic behavior, which affected several teams at the beginning of the last season.
If technological progress and (economic and ecological) sustainability undermine the excitement and interest in the sport, it’s probably time for the FIA and Formula 1 to start identifying compromise solutions. In this regard, doubling the kilometers for filming days represents a timid reversal of the trend.
Leave a Reply