18/01/2005
NEWS STORY
Contrary to speculation, it appears that BAR will adhere to the testing limit agreed by nine of the Formula One teams, however, the limit agreed in Brazil, over the course of the Grand Prix weekend, has now been raised to thirty days.
Speaking in Barcelona, at the launch of the BAR 007, team principal Nick Fry, told reporters that his team will stick to the agreement.
"I think there is a good level of agreement between all the teams, perhaps except Ferrari," he said, "that thirty days is the agreed amount. It was suggested partly by us anyway, so thirty is the number.
"At the moment my understanding is that Ferrari do not agree with that," he continued. "I think it would probably be better for all involved if there were agreements between ten teams rather than nine. So I would hope that between now and the start of the season we can agree all ten of us and not have one team out on its own."
Ferrari has said that it believes the test limit to be unworkable and naive, though team boss Jean Todt revealed last week that it will carry out less testing in 2005 - simply because the tight schedule makes it impossible - and that the Italian will be reducing the size of its test team, effectively losing fifteen employees.