As most teams will be using the Friday testing session to give their race drivers the opportunity to work on their cars' setup, taking a young talented driver from the GP2 Series and allowing him to test an F1 car doesn't seem like the most reasonable thing to do nowadays.
Also, the guys who tested more than 4 times last year – the rule only applies for young test drivers, picked up from F1 feeder series by certain teams – don't have much to celebrate. No matter how great they did during last year's testing, they won't be allowed to test for a second year running in the series. According to the new rule book, the drivers who have tested more the 4 times in the previous 2 years in Formula 1 will not be allowed to test next year.
“As far as I know BMW Sauber was very satisfied with the work I did for them last year. It is clear that the test ban makes it much harder for young drivers,” said Asmer in an interview for Dutch magazine Formule 1 Race Report. The Estonian driver crossed the 4-test line last season and was announced that he won't be joining BMW Sauber for the new season.
It was the same situation with Brazilian di Grassi, who was replaced by fellow GP2 driver Romain Grosjean at Renault, as the Frenchman did not get to test much for the Enstone-based team last year.
Renault is believed to plan the lay-off of more than 100 employees before the start of the new season, due to testing restriction and cutting aerodynamic tunnel usage imposed by the FIA in 2009. More teams are to follow Renault example, as it is expected that all F1 manufacturers will cut approximately 100 employees (per team) in order to reduce budgets for 2009.
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