General
Even fewer test hours next year: 'only three days of winter testing'.
- GPblog.com
All teams will have to do it in 2021 with even fewer hours of winter testing. After being reduced to two times three days in 2020, another week is now missing. Only three days will be tested according to Auto, Motor und Sport.
Once upon a time the test days for the teams were unlimited but there are limitations. Now the restrictions are only getting less and less. From 2021 onwards, the teams will only have three days to test everything they came up with during the winter period.
No winter testing
There was a proposal on the table to cancel the winter tests at all, but that proposal did not make it. By cancelling the annual tests in February, the teams wanted to save money, especially now that there are few changes to the engine and regulations. Next year the teams will drive the same car as this year. From 2022 the new rules will apply.
McLaren in particular would have insisted on keeping some days of testing in February because there will be some changes to the aerodynamics of all cars. The British team has probably had its way now that three days of testing will be introduced.
Where will they test?
It is not yet clear where the tests will take place. The last few years testing has traditionally taken place in Barcelona, but sometimes the weather will be disruptive. Possibly the teams will go back to Bahrain, where testing will take place until 2014.