MAY 16, 2001

Dennis does not want rule change

MCLAREN chairman Ron Dennis has criticized Williams' plans, revealed in Austria, to circumvent the winter testing ban.

Williams plan to run their BMW Formula One engine in a sportscar to obtain valuable track testing time in the banned months of November and December, but are hoping their threats will force a rule change.

Dennis, however, believes that although he has always been against the ruling, it should not now be changed.

"I for one was supportive of a change in 2002," said Dennis. "But we all agreed and we should all stick by it and not try to circumvent it."

The testing ban was introduced in a bid to save money but Dennis believes that it has had an opposite effect and says rather than helping the smaller teams it will just allow the richer squads to become stronger.

"If they want the larger teams to be supportive of a testing ban it will only strengthen the larger teams because they will invest in simulation techniques and other forms of mechanically evaluating their car in static conditions," said Dennis.

"Now we are in a situation where the larger teams have made that investment and created those facilities and suddenly some of those teams say we have made a mistake (in agreeing to the rule).

"We said the cheapest way to develop a car is on the circuit and if you want to revert then it would have been the same sort of motives to change it."

But Dennis added that almost all the work that can be done on the track can be done in a laboratory, even if the latter solution is more expensive.

"With the exception of G-force and vibrations that the engine and gearbox do, you can achieve everything on a dyno," he said. "And it is a far more controlled scientific environment to function."