Todt wants Formula One's test ban lifted

FIA president Jean Todt will seek to relax the ban on in-season Formula One testing from next year despite concerns that it would further disadvantage the smaller teams.

"For me, it is a stupid decision to have no testing during the season," the head of the governing body, who was previously Ferrari team boss, told a media briefing at the Turkish Grand Prix Sunday. "In the past it was crazy to have unlimited testing during the year, but to go from unlimited to completely banned, it is not the right measure. It doesn't allow young drivers to test, it doesn't give the opportunity for young drivers to learn some experience in F1, and I will make sure that this situation will change for the future."

Todt said the FIA would propose at a meeting in Valencia on 23 June that from 2012 three, two-day sessions during the season should be allowed. Should the teams resist, he could use his powers to force the measure through for 2013.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, speaking to Reuters after a meeting of the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) that he chairs, said the smaller teams had to be considered.

The ban was introduced in 2009 as part of cost-saving measures at a time of global financial crisis.

"Many teams would like more testing but we've got to be respectful of the small teams as well. We've got to contain costs," he said. "If the larger teams start testing and it's seen as to the disadvantage of the small teams then that isn't good for the sport. Like all things in this sport, you've got to make a bit of a compromise and we will do some young driver testing. We are looking at other ways in which we can perhaps test more cost effectively."

Whitmarsh said it would be unrealistic to think the sport could roll back the clock to a time when teams like McLaren and Ferrari did 60 days a year and 40,000km of testing at deserted race tracks.

"I loved it personally as an engineer but I appreciate that even if we at McLaren or Ferrari or Red Bull want to do it, then you are only disadvantaging the small teams that really can't afford to do that," he said. "I think the testing that we do has to be focussed on trying to develop young drivers, not a spending exercise for the Formula One teams."