Thierry Neuville finds ridiculous the reduction in testing days which was proposed by FIA in 2022 as he considers the number of events that are included to the calendar.
FIA has recently announced that the teams now will have only 21 days of testing to prepare for the rounds of 2023 World Rally Championship which means that each driver has seven days in total to get ready before the start of a race. This decision was made in the view of reducing the financial costs and it is valid only for the WRC teams. In the past years, the testing days were 28 totally and the drivers had more time and kilometers to find the proper set-up for an event. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that the tests are only permitted inside the Europe as the WRC teams cannot schedule tests outside the European region.
"For me first of all it is ridiculous to reduce the testing to only seven days per driver", Neuville said.
"We were supposed to have 14 events this year and now 13 and we can only test for half of the events.
"We need to be prepared.
"We have many events with bad shakedowns that are not representative of the rallies at all, and not having a test could make it somehow dangerous at some point if you don’t get the right settings from the beginning.
"But it is what it is.
"I think teams will go and participate in small national rallies around the area which again will be much more expensive and time consuming as well for the drivers and the team".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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