'Renault wouldn't have done this if they didn't think it would be advantageous'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
After the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, there is always a test to allow young drivers to test Formula 1. This year, however, an almost forty-year-old two-time world champion also took part. That was not quite the intention beforehand.
Zak Brown explains to Motorsport-Total.com that the original idea was to stop this test at all this year. This was because of cost savings, but "some teams generating income from the Young Driver Test raised their hands and said they needed that money."
Brown does not name names, but it is well known that there are drivers who pay a lot of money for a day's testing in an F1 car. Sometimes that money runs into the millions and that is money that some teams could really use. That's why the test went ahead, but "then it started to develop a life of it's own," Brown says.
Renault and Alonso are not going to test for nothing
McLaren decided not to participate because they were changing engine suppliers and they felt they had no need to test the old engine. Moreover, their new driver Daniel Ricciardo was not yet allowed to join. To their great surprise they saw that the rules for Fernando Alonso and Renault were stretched.
"I don't think it's a big advantage, but in motorsport every advantage you can get is taken into account. But let's put it this way, Renault would not have pushed this through if they thought it would not bring any advantage. I think that if we were to do it again, it would probably just be a test for young drivers," concludes Brown.