BARCELONA TEST ONE DAY THREE – heavy snow causes testing to be delayed and likely to be cancelled
The third day of the first pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya has been delayed after heavy snowfall overnight. Poor weather condition is unlikely to see any track running on Wednesday, meaning teams have lobbied for the second test to be extended to five days.
Plans to extend this weeks test are unlikely to happen because both Ferrari and Williams have booked filming days on Friday and Saturday. On Tuesday afternoon some teams abandoned their run plans due to rain and light flurries of snow.
Those calls are set to ramp up after teams and drivers arrived to steadily-falling snow on Wednesday morning. FIA race director Charlie Whiting is at the track and set to talk with teams about possible contingency plans.
The weather is expected to improve on the final day of this week’s first test with highs of 15C predicted on a cloudy day with intermittent showers.
However the changes to the schedule would need agreement from all the teams as per the Sporting Regulations note: “The test schedule will be finalised within 21 days of the first publication of the Championship calendar, changes may only be made after this date with the agreement of all competitors.”
Any changes would cause some chaos for teams and drivers who will head home over the weekend. The regulations also state that test can be no longer than four days and must be no later than ten days before the start of the first race weekend.
A number of options have been suggested including running on Friday, however that conflicts with filming days. Another option has been extending the in-season Bahrain test in April, but that could cause logistical challenges at Chinese customs. Plus regardless the FIA would still have to check with its own legal department that it would be on safe ground if it did ignore its own rules.
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