By Parminio
November 11 2004

There's not much chance of sorting out who did what and why, but it does seem logical at this point that the other teams simply are out to get Ferrari. There's not much chance of sorting out who did what and why, but it does seem logical at this point that the other teams simply are out to get Ferrari. The biggest giveaway in my opinion is that no team has what Ferrari has: Their own, private test track right outside the door where the car is built.

So who's fault is that? For the most part, Englands I think. McLaren were supposed to have a new, private test track at the Paragon facility, but government restrictions held it up. Other teams either don't have the money, or are held up by the same restrictions. So who does this test reduction benefit?

The teams that agreed to it of course. Ferrari can wheel their car right outside the garage, fire it up and run laps. The other teams have to load up, transport, unload, set up, pay for track time, pay all the folks that run the test program, pay for all the transportation and then test.

Ferrari pretty much pay nothing. It's all done right there. (With the exception of course of when they test at actual venues with everyone else)

I can see a ban on private testing at venue tracks. If you go to Spain to test, anyone that wants to show up should be able to show up. I can not see a ban on testing or restrictions on testing just because one team has something you don't, and they have for years. Decades even.

Noone complained about the amount of testing done when Ferrari weren't winning. Let's not all start complaining now about testing costing all the money now that they have been winning. Let's look at what really needs to be done. Let's get Bernie to share a bigger part of the revenues that the teams all earn. Noone goes to see Bernie. They go to see Jordan, McLaren, Williams, Ferrari, Toyota, Sauber, Minardi, BAR, Renault, and anyone else that will show up.

Sadly, with so much of that money going to Bernie's bank account, and so little going to the teams, there will be at least one less team this year and two more that still aren't out of the woods yet.

Minardi hardly tested at all last year. Doesn't that mean they saved a lot of money? No, it doesn't. They will STILL have money problems. A testing reduction to a level that they didn't even test to last year is NOT going to help them save one red dime.

Look at the facts folks, not the smokescreen.