Fernando Alonso reckons the limitations of testing in Formula 1 puts teams in a difficult position to gain ground on rivals throughout a season.
Full-scale in-season testing has been forbidden since the beginning of 2009 in order to clamp down on excessive spending by teams, with pre-season testing also experiencing a decrease over the past several seasons and is due to be reduced to only two tests in 2016 from three this year.
Although testing throughout a season returned in 2012, albeit the number of tests being capped. Alonso commented on the fact that testing restrictions is the main reason for a team like Manor or McLaren, who have grappled with persistent reliability and performance troubles this season, being unable to fully get on top of their issues and move up the pecking order.
“Before we had some freedom in terms of testing and improving the car, so if you found your car was not competitive in the first quarter of the season you then planned some solutions and maybe you ended the year in a competitive way,” said the 34-year-old.
“Now, the Mercedes will win all the races and the Manor will be last at all the races and we have our hands tied for the season.
“So when we go testing in Barcelona or Jerez for the first test, we are tossing a coin in the air and if the car is competitive you will have a good season and if it’s not competitive you will have a bad season.”
