F1 News: Fernando Alonso Joins The List Of Drivers To Call Out 2024 Season – “How Unfair”
Fernando Alonso has voiced his concerns over the 2024 Formula 1 season, particularly highlighting the lack of adequate testing time during the pre-season sessions. The Aston Martin driver finds it unfair that teams are forced to split one car between two drivers over a mere three-day period.
Key Takeaways:
- Testing Time Concerns: Alonso is worried about the limited testing time for teams in preparation for the 2024 season, particularly the unfairness of splitting one car between two drivers in a three-day session.
- Sergio Perez on Long Season: Red Bull’s Sergio Perez highlights the challenges of the extensive 24-race season, noting the tight schedule that leaves little room for pre-season testing.
- Alonso’s Proposal: Alonso suggests extending pre-season testing to four days or allowing teams to run both cars for two days to address the scarcity of testing time in Formula 1 compared to other sports.
Recently, Red Bull driver Sergio Perez pointed out that the record-breaking 24-race season this year was so long that a lengthy window for pre-season testing, scheduled between 21 and 23 February, cannot be accommodated in the calendar.
Alonso feels strongly about the lack of sufficient testing time, since he comes from a Formula 1 era when teams had the liberty to test their machines for several days without restrictions on the distance the cars could be run for.
Speaking to the media, the 42-year-old driver revealed that there is no other sport with such scarcity pertaining to pre-season testing. He said:
“I’ve been thinking all winter about this, how unfair is [it] that we have one day and a half to prepare a world championship.
“There’s no other sport in the world…”
Alonso raised another point, questioning why sport would not extend the pre-season-testing to four days, or perhaps allow teams to run both their cars since there are two drivers in each team. He added:
“With all the money involved, and with all the marketing and the good things that we say about Formula 1, and being closer and closer to the fans, I cannot understand why we then go to Bahrain for four days, which could be two and two for [each of] the drivers.
“If you go to three, which is not even, which is an odd number, you cannot divide [fairly] between the drivers.
“And I don’t know why we don’t go with two cars.”
While one reason for Formula 1 to implement a three-day session between two drivers and one F1 car is to minimize costs, there is a suggestion that the sport could have devised a more optimal plan for this year, especially given that the first race and pre-testing will occur at the same location in Bahrain.
With all the necessary equipment already shipped to Sakhir, the additional costs of running a second car would primarily involve personnel and operational expenses. Some argue that these costs are insignificant compared to the potential benefits.
