Lots of difficult news for F1 teams as Ferrari, McLaren and Lotus learned that they will not be able to test beyond this Sunday. An FIA rule allows no testing in the week before the week of the first race of the season – the teams wanted to interpret that as meaning they had another week to go before the week of the race. But the FIA clarified that this meant nothing of the sort, since they will all be meeting in Melbourne on the Thursday before the Sunday race of March 18.
In the meantime, the Marussia team also learned that its new car did not pass the final crash test and cannot therefore take part in the testing that is to start this week, on Thursday and run to Sunday. We don’t often think about all the ingredients that have to fit in just right to get those cars on the track and have those teams build up – as both Lotus and Marussia are doing at the moment.