Aston Martin's driver Fernando Alonso expressed disagreement with current Formula 1 rules concerning pre-season testing.
Pre-season testing in Bahrain takes place in less than three days from the time of posting this article, on the 21st of February at 10 AM local time.
The drivers and their teams will have three nine-hour practice sessions to test and adjust their cars ahead of the first race weekend of the season, which takes place a week later. However, according to motorsport.com, Fernando Alonso doesn't agree with this format.
"We have a very limited testing in Bahrain. I've been thinking all winter about this, how unfair it is that we only have one day and a half to prepare a world championship."
The problem is that every team can have only one car on track at a time. Every team has two cars and two drivers, so to be fair, the time has to be split equally between the two.
"I cannot understand why we then go to Bahrain for four days, which could be two and two for the drivers. If you go to three, which is not even, which is an odd number, you cannot divide between the drivers."
The teams are not allowed to run their 2024 challengers on track ahead of the pre-season testing. The only thing that is permitted is shakedown.
Shakedown is a maximum of 200km with one car on special Pirelli testing tires, different from those we see throughout the season. This means there isn't too much valuable data to be collected until the pre-season testing starts.
"Personally speaking, I don't think three days is enough, because you have got to remember from a driver's perspective, that is one and a half days per driver."
In this manner, F1 is kind of different from other sports, where the athletes can practice in almost identical conditions throughout the season.
F1 drivers get a limited amount of time in their car before the start of the season, and they have to make the most of it. The double World Champion made a comparison:
"Could you imagine Rafael Nadal spending 12 weeks without hitting a ball and then going straight into the French Open with one and a half days of training? It just wouldn't ever happen."
On the other hand, the 42-year-old said he could also see the other side of the coin, but he would change the rules a bit to allow teams to run two cars on track simultaneously.
"I understand and recognize why we do that. I think three days with two cars would probably be a good place to be."
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