Richards considers Friday testing

BAR boss David Richards would consider joining the ranks of the 'Heathrow' agreement if the restrictions on it were lifted a little. Originally seen as a cost-cutting measure, the agreement was for teams to have two hours of private testing on the Friday of a race weekend, and other test schedules through the year to be limited to less than three weeks overall.

Jordan, Minardi, Jaguar and Renault initially signed up and Sauber intends to join next season. Richards and possibly Frank Williams are interested, if Friday track time and other test period allowances were increased. Richards thinks the current two-hour early morning Friday session needs to be doubled and perhaps run a bit later in the day, when the track is not so cold and dirty.

"It's not an ideal time to get any representative testing done," he said in a recent press conference at Indianapolis. "If it was a little bit more than that, if it was perhaps later in the morning as well when the temperatures were up, we would seriously consider doing that next year, and it's very much under consideration from our point of view."

"I had a meeting with Frank Williams about it last week, and we both agreed that if they were to go to four hours on a Friday and make it 30 days (of other testing), both of our teams would sort of sign up. So I guess there's somewhere in the middle we might end up settling for next year."

"I think it will be in the interest of everybody, because I think the amount of testing we all do at the moment, it at times can be a little bit pointless and certainly very expensive."

A Formula One commission meeting is scheduled for October 3rd and it's likely the subject will be discussed then. Most teams are interested in a limited testing proposal that would cut costs. But Ferrari is not keen as it has the advantage of it's own facilities at Mugello and Fiorano, which allows it to test with less expense.

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