Winter testing ban comes under fire

The ban on testing has been increased to two months for 2001, but a proposal to change the rule will be discussed at next week's San Marino Grand Prix. Any changes will require the unanimous agreement of all 11 F1 teams.

The Ferrari team is unlikely to fall in line and Benetton team boss Flavio Briatore has expressed his satisfaction with the two-month break.

The ban was extended in an attempt to reduce testing budgets, but certain teams believe the lack of running hampers new engine partners and drivers, and could in fact serve to increase winter development costs.

Carrying out factory simulations and using seven-post rigs is often more costly than actually running the cars. What is more, teams with larger budgets could run more than one test team once the ban has been lifted in an effort to make up for the lost mileage.

"There is a limit on the number of cars at one test," said Jordan managing director Trevor Foster, "but there is no limit on the number of tests a team can do at the same time. Teams are likely to need to start testing at 9am on the morning of January 1, because there is so little time to make new cars reliable."