Eric Boullier has lambasted the two teams that prevented the rearrangement of Wednesday’s snow day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and believes it could have easily been arranged to add an additional day on either Sunday or Monday.
Snow enveloped the Spanish venue ahead of the day on Wednesday, leaving the majority of the teams in the garage, with only McLaren F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso setting a lap time, with the Spaniard completing eleven laps in total.
No driver from The Haas F1 Team, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari, Sahara Force India F1 Team or Renault Sport Formula One Team ventured out on track at all, while Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda, Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team and Williams Martini Racing completed only six installation laps between them.
Boullier, McLaren’s racing director, said it was selfish on the part of the two teams to not allow the test day to be rearranged, feeling it would have been right for the sport to change the date to allow better preparation for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix at the end of the month, particularly as there were only eight days of testing available in the first place. An unanimous decision is needed for any such decision to be made.
“To change testing dates, we would have required unanimity, so that means all the teams would have needed to be in agreement to change the date. It appears that two teams did not want to change the date,” said Boullier to Sky Sports.
“It’s obviously wasted money. We decided to save costs. We need these eight days to offer a decent show on-track for race one, covering reliability issues and everything we need to cover.
“We spent the money to be here. The track is booked for two weeks anyway, so we had the possibility to move that day to another one later. We know the forecast is better on Sunday or Monday.
“That’s purely wasted money on selfish interests.”
