20/09/2005
NEWS STORY
The Toyota F1 team was left in disarray when it recently discovered, courtesy of Pitpass, that it had used up its full allocation of test days for the 2005 Formula One World Championship season.
A three-day test, scheduled to take place at Jerez next week, was cancelled, while members of the test team were put on leave until the end of November, when teams are allowed to begin their on-track preparations for the 2006 season.
Fortunately, a quick-witted member of the Toyota team checked the Pitpass math and realized that a mistake had been made. According to the slow-witted Pitpass team, Toyota used up days 10, 11 and 12 of its 2005 allocation at Paul Ricard in mid-may, then miraculously used days 16, 17 and 18 at Monza in the beginning of June.
For reasons known only to Pitpass (superstition? bias?), days 13, 14 and 15 were omitted.
Therefore Pitpass has amended its figures and Toyota is free to test for three days at Jerez next week.
Members of the Ferrari team who hope to persuade Pitpass that the team has only tested for 27 days this season are wasting their time. No pun intended.
As at this time, the teams have used up the following amount of days: Jordan (16). Minardi (6), Sauber (21), McLaren (28), WilliamsF1 (28), Renault (28), Red Bull (26), BAR (28) and Toyota (27).