Minardi “Young drivers have to run at least 3-5000 km before they know their car”

At the Spanish GP, people talked about F.1 testing again and the Ferrari’s chairman Mr. Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said that the Maranello- based team strongly supports the return of testing in F.1. On the opposite, McLaren is contrary to the reintegration of testing into F.1.

Gian Carlo Minardi talked about this subject, expressing his opinion in his website www.minardi.it. He supports Ferrari’s point of view, saying that he has always been interested in testing and young drivers, with whom he’s always worked and shared his long experience in the world of motorsport.

“I’ve always supported the importance of cutting down costs in other fields, without penalizing private testing which play an important role: satisfying young drivers. A driver has to run at least 3-5000 km before knowing his car. According to present regulations, that is almost impossible to do. Moreover, at the beginning of the racing season, most of the circuits young drivers have to race at are almost unknown to the majority of them.” says the manager from Faenza “If we want to ensure a generation change, we’ll have to give these young guys the opportunity to practice. I hope that what Mr. Montezemolo said will be soon supported by facts. That would mean that more and more attention will be focused on young drivers, who will have the chance to express themselves and display their potential through on-track practice. I’ve been supporting the idea of reintroducing Friday free practices for rookie racers, for a long time. We don’t have to forget that racers such as Vettel and Kubica (only to mention a few) caught the attention of racing experts just thanks to free practices.”

In this start to the season, the Sauber Mexican driver Esteban Gutierrez has been criticized and called into question. Just in Spain he set the fastest lap, finishing ahead of his team mate “Before blaming Gutierrez, more time should have been given to him to express himself. Now the team has to make him work quietly. It would be extremely unfair to pan him now, only after 5 GP, he mostly run on unknown tracks. Unfortunately he didn’t have the opportunity to prepare for racing at best”, says Gian Carlo Minardi.