Christian Horner has reputedly questioned the usefulness of this week's Mugello test, the first to be held during a season since 2008.
As Ferrari decide to introduce major upgrade in Spain
Christian Horner has reputedly questioned the usefulness of this week's Mugello test, the first to be held during a season since 2008.
Although Red Bull have publicly declared the three-day test, which essentially become a two-day affair following Tuesday's torrential rain, "productive", their team boss has been quoted as saying on the James Allen website:
"It's very beautiful and the food is very good, but we are spending a lot of money and honestly we didn't feel the need to come here."
Horner's quotes, if accurate, are in sharp contrast to the public utterances of his drivers. Mark Webber said that attending the test was a "no-brainer", while Sebastian Vettel described his two days running as "a useful couple of days".
Yet the non-attendance of both of McLaren's race drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, would seemingly suggest that the Woking outfit were far from convinced about the test's usefulness from the outset, while Lotus boss Eric Boullier is said to have branded the event as "money spent needlesly". As with Button and Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus' lead driver, was also conspicuous by his absence in Tuscany.
Even Ferrari, the most powerful advocates for the test on a circuit which they own, have inadvertently brought the point of the test into question by opting against introducing their much-anticipated major upgrade. With Fernando Alonso describing the aerodynamic improvements run on Thursday as "small", the team will instead unveil their make-or-break changes to the F2012 at next week's Spanish GP.
"We have decided to favour development time in the wind tunnel rather than bringing forward all the new components to this test," confirmed Alonso. "In Barcelona, we will have more important updates and we hope that there, we can begin to close down the gap that separates us from the teams currently at the top."
