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The new testing agreement
After many false starts, some going back to October 2004, Formula One has at last, it was said in Suzuka, agreed terms for a distance-linked test cap for 2007. Whilst details remain sketchy, with sources providing information on condition of anonymity, next year's F1 test programmes will be a far cry from that which went before.
Importantly, the eleven team bosses agreed on an overall cap of 30,000 kilometres, as previously insisted upon by Ferrari, with the sport in the process of ditching the complicated 30-day cap voluntarily signed up to by nine of the ten teams for 2005 (with the Italian team being the sole dissenter), and the even more convoluted 36-day limit (with testing at nominated 'home' circuits counting as half a day) agreed to by all for this season.
From discussions with various team members and tyre company representatives, it appears that the latest test pact requires that the year be divided into three distinctly different periods - pre-season, in-season, and post-season - with an overall limit of 30,000 test kilometres per team, accumulated via no more than 300 sets of tyres, being agreed upon.
