“I've got seven days to master the car, where normally I would have had twenty. With the limitations on testing during the season, and the few sessions we have over the next two months, this is going to be an intense time and absolutely critical for every team,” Hamilton told BBC News earlier this week.
For some drivers – Hamilton in particular – the first testing session in the off season happened last week, at Algarve. Hamilton only got to test the new car one day, while Kovalainen was unfortunate enough to miss the last day of testing at the Portuguese circuit due to the bad weather.
The 2009 challengers were introduced with plenty of novelties, namely a totally different aerodynamic package – aimed to improve overtaking in drafting conditions – the return of slick tires and, for some teams, the introduction of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System. Having spent a lot more time on testing in the last few years for much less, getting used to the new racing conditions might be tricky enough.
On the other hand, the drivers won't get to use much of the Friday mileage to adapt to the new settings, as argued by Alonso. The Renault driver insisted that many drivers will prefer to keep a low profile on Fridays – technically, the only time F1 teams are allowed to test new components or run new settings – due to the 8-engine-per-season rule imposed by the FIA.
“Fridays are just to check if everything is working, to prepare for qualifying and the race. In the most extreme case, on Friday you make some setup changes, but also because of the engine rules, I do not expect drivers to do many laps,” Alonso was quoted as saying in an interview for Formule 1 Race Report.
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