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With fewer tests during the winter break and throughout the season, Formula 1 lacks a clear benchmark. The ban on testing, lifted years ago for financial reasons, is now increasingly detrimental to all stakeholders in the sport, as it makes it more difficult to develop the cutting-edge technologies on which they depend.
Since the early 2010s, the ban on private testing during the season has not been questioned, and the number of winter testing days is decreasing year by year. With less and less track time available, teams are forced to make the most of what they have, and some are even going so far as to oppose a rule they previously supported. Ron Dennis, for example, can't help but wonder how McLaren's fate might have been different if the team had been free to use its Honda engine on any track between Grand Prix races, giving it a real chance to become competitive.
When the competitiveness argument proved insufficient, Pirelli, the sport's sole tire supplier, invoked safety, arguing that more testing was needed to develop its products. The FIA responded by granting the Italian company two days of tire testing at a circuit of its choice, with three top teams using year-old cars so that no team would have a direct performance advantage.
These rare sessions have already borne fruit: Pirelli took advantage of the opportunity to refine the 2017 tires for wet conditions, creating a controlled wet track environment at Paul Ricard, a site that has become a specialized testing ground.
The scarcity of private testing has also encouraged a more conservative approach among teams, which tend to retain the same driver pairings from one season to the next, as seen in 2015 and 2016. Seasoned drivers such as Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, and Kimi Raikkonen remain in high demand among the top teams, which are reluctant to replace experience with youth, even if it means sidelining promising talents such as Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne at McLaren.
Thus, the absence of testing has both advantages and disadvantages. However, the governing bodies seem to have already taken a position, leaving the prospect of more testing during the season as a pipe dream for a few optimists.
