Teams await Ferrari decision

The reigning world champion outfit has made it clear that it does not believe a day limit in testing will do anything to reduce costs and has instead opted for its own reduced mileage limit - which is set to save it more than £1 million this year.

And although there is a likelihood that the accord of nine teams will fall apart if Ferrari does not sign up, because outfits like BAR do not want to compromise their world championship hopes by handing Ferrari an automatic testing advantage, the plan remains for the time being to stick at the 30 day limit.

BAR boss Nick Fry told autosport.com, however, that if Ferrari has not joined the scheme by the season-opening Australian Grand Prix then that may be the time to open discussions about whether the testing limit is the right thing to do.

"The answer is pretty simple," said Fry. "We decided to 30 days of testing and that is what we intend to do. If Ferrari decides to carry on doing an unlimited amount of testing then I think the other nine teams will have to sit down and decide between us what we are going to do about it. We have not had that discussion yet.

"The plan is that we hope Ferrari will join us before Melbourne. At the moment, the assumption is that the other nine teams will do 30 days."

Fry added that he remained open-minded to the outcome, and that no decision had been made in advance of Ferrari's final decision.

"We have to take care of the situation when it happens," he said. "We are assuming we are going to do 30 days."