SEPTEMBER 24, 2005

Honda to back out of testing deal?

There are rumours in Brazil that suggest that although the manufacturer teams remain visibly united in their stand against the plans for a revised Concorde Agreement, BAR-Honda may be planning to increase its testing to make the team more competitive, thus ending the deal that has stayed in place this year that the teams (with the exception of Ferrari) would impose their own limits on testing. This has not really helped Ferrari this year as the car has been uncompetitive in most places, with one or two sudden bursts of speed, but it has made some of the teams feel that they are holding themselves back in the fight for the World Championship. The decision to reduce testing did not really cut costs for BAR because the team modified its activities to make sure there were cars running at every available moment during the testing days, which meant taking more cars and people to the tests and working everyone much harder than perhaps it appeared.