Pietro Fittipaldi, Haas, Bahrain International Circuit, 2022

Haas allowed to extend test days to make up for lost running

2022 F1 season

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Haas will be allowed to conduct extra running during this week’s test at Bahrain International Circuit to make up for the time lost due to a freight delay.

The team was unable to participate in the first four hours of running when testing began at the track today due to the late arrival of their freight.

The test is due to conclude on Saturday. Haas initially requested permission to continue testing on Sunday. However, Formula 1’s sporting regulations specify the pre-season tests may only run over three consecutive days.

“We were denied the testing on Sunday,” Haas team principal Guenther Steiner confirmed, saying McLaren had opposed the move “nine minutes before we went out.”

However the team will be able to regain its lost time after the scheduled end of each of the three days of testing between now and Saturday.

“We need to make up now every day, we can make up four hours of testing,” said Steiner. “But we need to make it up at the end of the day, we’re not allowed to run on Sunday.”

Steiner said the cargo problem which led to their delayed arrival was out of their hands. “We are unlucky,” he said. “Look at our last two years, I mean, there was not a lot of luck in there.”

The delayed flight involved a plane which had been chartered by Formula 1 Management. “It was just the wrong plane at the wrong time,” he said. “The plane had some technical issues and was stuck in Turkey. It never made it to the UK and that was it.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

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12 comments on “Haas allowed to extend test days to make up for lost running”

  1. Glad F1 found a solution to keep this fair.

  2. So only one car on track from 19:00 until 23:00 each day.

    1. And that too at the time when track conditions are most representative. Good prep for next week’s Bahrain GP!

      K-Mag for win!

      BTW, who will pay for the lights being turned on?

      1. @sumedh I don’t know who pays, but I’m sure the lights will be fine despite the additional time being on.
        Extremely unlikely, they suddenly suffer a blackout over this unplanned extra.

        1. Somewhat questionable, though. Why each day when Haas only needs 1x4h to get on a level with other teams?
          This way, a total of 32h from this test with the other nine getting 24.
          Slightly favoritism, which especially Williams & AR might be unhappy about if Haas turns out unbeatable for them.

          1. I don’t think its 4 hours per day. More like 2 per day.

    2. Freight delay, seems fair enough.

      1. @yaru Yes, but not for possibly getting an unfair advantage.
        @thelem His wording is slightly misleading, but yes, he probably meant that rather than literally doing post-19:00 track running each day. Indeed no way one team would receive such an advantage over others from FIA.

      2. I luv chicken
        10th March 2022, 21:04

        Wonder if it was Russian plane owned by Putin or Mazepin?

    3. When he says “We need to make up now every day, we can make up four hours of testing,” he must mean that they will be running late every evening, and in total they will run for four hours in the evening. There’s no way they’d be allowed more running time than the other teams.

    4. @jerejj as I understand they lost 4 hours and they get to make up 2 hours a day at the end over the next 2 days.

      1. @blueruck This seems plausible. Wording interpretation has proved hard in this case.

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