Willis: It was a mistake to ban testing in Formula 1

Geoff Willis believes F1 made “a mistake” when it banned any form of test on track during the season. The ban was imposed for cost reasons, a fact which should theoretically benefit smaller teams such as HRT, where Willis is the technical advisor. But the engineer argues that the complete absence of testing means that large budgets are spent on simulators.

“The mistake, in my opinion, is that at the same time that it was right to ban unlimited testing, you had to find a way to assign specific dates for collective testing and organize a commercial operation around it,” he said.

Surprisingly, Willis also supports the reintroduction of the 107 per cent qualifying rule, although HRT would have been excluded from some races in 2010 if the clause stood.

“Teams have to operate at a certain level, that's what we want from F1,” he said, even calling for a limit of 105 percent.

“Obviously, in our current position we would have problems with a 105 percent rule but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw it in the future. It's part of the nature of F1,” insisted Willis.

André Cotta