Why in-season testing must return to Formula 1
In-season testing has disappeared from Formula 1 over the past few years, much to the detriment of young drivers starved of experience and established teams trying to claw back ground on the rest. Dieter Rencken puts forward the case for its return
Imagine telling Tour de France winner Cadel Evans to stay off his bicycle for the next three months, or ensuring Tom Daley's baths don't contain more than a foot of water between diving contests lest the young Briton perform a double somersault from the taps during his morning ablution rituals.
Yet that is precisely the comparable situation Formula 1 drivers find themselves in after the sport agreed to ban in-season testing as part of its cost-cutting initiatives: absolutely no sitting in moving F1 cars between the drop of the chequered flag after a race and 10am a fortnight or so later. To quote Michael Schumacher: "I cannot think of another top line sport where training is banned between events."
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