Whats to stop secret testing in F1?

[fizz47]

As we all know the teams in F1 have never been adverse to using underhand tactics to gain an advantage.

Currently there are set official testing times for the cars and drivers.

My question is, what is to stop any of the teams to fly out to some random remote track with a car or even an identical copy without all the livery and do some testing on their own?

Surely with the amount of money thrown about in F1 this would'nt be difficult to organise or would it?

[Richard-G]

fizz47 said:

As we all know the teams in F1 have never been adverse to using underhand tactics to gain an advantage.

Currently there are set official testing times for the cars and drivers.

My question is, what is to stop any of the teams to fly out to some random remote track with a car or even an identical copy without all the livery and do some testing on their own?

Surely with the amount of money thrown about in F1 this would'nt be difficult to organise or would it?

one word, Tyres

[Richard-G]

however saying that (and bearing in mind the new tyre company is italian):

"hello mr pirelli my name is bernard schnitzel, i am the vp of car dynamics from mercedes benz, i was chatting to a ross brawn the other day and he wanted to know what tyres our next road car should use. do you think if our next c class wore p zeros we could borrow some f1 tyres "

[Life Saab Itch]

There would be nothing stopping the teams running on another tyre, but these days it would be a fruitless excercise.

[Crafty_]

There is already a possible "get out" to this, the teams are allowed to run the cars for media purposes, its all meant to be low speed stuff and there is a mileage restriction.. however it wouldn't be too difficult to imagine this being stretched a little.

There were widespread rumours that Schumacher tested a disguised 2009 Ferrari at Fiorano when he was in the frame to replace Massa who was recovering from injuries after being hit by a bouncing spring.
The rumour goes he wasn't too impressed by the car and suddenly developed an issue with his neck soon after the test which meant he wouldn't take the drive.

Personally I think the test ban is stupid. You have rookies that aren't allowed to drive the car before competing. The teams spend millions on wind tunnels, CFD research and complex simulation rigs to replace packing the transporters up and heading to a circuit for a week.

The original intent on test bans was to save costs, all that happened is the teams now spend far more than ever using tunnels/rigs to "test" the cars to circumvent the ban. Just let them test.. it'd be far easier..

[E30M3SE]

It has been widely reported that he was running on GP2 spec tyres, no need to listen to rumours, it was also a 2007 car, as the request to test a 2009 car was blocked.

http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=46541

Edited by E30M3SE on Thursday 10th March 17:42

[covboy]

Beleive it or not I was told the cars are fitted with tracking devices so that during the summer "shut down" the FIA can tell whether the cars are even moved out of their transporters !!

[Chrisgr31]

Secret testing is next to impossible due to the noise a F1 car makes. Someone will hear it, and photograph it.

[Dangerous2]

ferrari have a secret underground test track... beneath the vatican city. they get tyres from the pope, the pirelli ceo is an illuminati also.

[mollytherocker]

Dangerous2 said:

ferrari have a secret underground test track... beneath the vatican city. they get tyres from the pope, the pirelli ceo is an illuminati also.

Love it! I MUST be true.

MTR

[Scuffers]

not forgetting the std ECU's have run-hours counters, etc etc etc...

[Flying Toilet]

covboy said:

Beleive it or not I was told the cars are fitted with tracking devices so that during the summer "shut down" the FIA can tell whether the cars are even moved out of their transporters !!

Not true.

Everything is sealed by the FIA and factories are monitored.

[chuno]

I stopped in Maranello last July for a few days - not too far from Fiorano. Woke up one morning to the sound of an F1 car - recognised it instantly.

Walked down to the track and sure as hell, there they were 'testing' a 2008 car i think (with a fairly large audience - we all sneaked a peek through the security fencing)-pretty sure it was on slicks, they were there all day.

I think from memory it might have been the tuesday before the German GP, and also from memory i think they had a few major updates for that gp - perhaps a coincidence - perhaps not.

I'm sure they weren't driving around fiorano for the fun of it... ;-)

Edited by chuno on Friday 11th March 12:54

Edited by chuno on Friday 11th March 12:54

[Zod]

The engines and gearboxes are sealed after each race weekend.

[Tyre Smoke]

Surely there is no restriction on tyres? Each team must have some to test to destruction anyway?

Nothing stopping any team from taking last year's car and fitting some 'new' bits and testing it surely?

What is there to stop Ferrari taking their 2010 car and playing with different front wing set ups around their test track? You know, 2010 car fitted with 2011 spec front wing. It's not technically testing their current race car is it?

[Crafty_]

Flying Toilet said:

Not true.

Everything is sealed by the FIA and factories are monitored.

Yeah I think he's getting confused - there is a system in each garage on GP weekends that has a camera above each car (and I guess motion detectors). When the hours are up between sessions (particularly between qualifying and race) the cars are watched to ensure no tweaking goes on.
The hours that team personnel work at the track are limited and I think they've reduced them again this year - they have to be finished by early evening - garages must be empty by that time. They have three "late passes" to use over the year that will let them have a few more hours work time (typically to repair a car if the driver binned it etc).