Testing ban - for some ?

It was reported in Motoring News this week that despite the testing ban, Ford had been testing in Spain using a location that was not was not licensed as a race circuit !

It is as this point that you have to feel sympathy for Championship organizers, as the whole point of the ban was to stop teams floating around the world testing,testing and more testing.

Presumably if the Fords are a lot quicker than some of the other works cars, then other teams will do the same - to keep up.

This goes against the spirit of the rules and goes to show you can't help some people. They all bleat on about costs, yet when they have rules imposed on the series to cut costs, they apparantly ingnore them anyway.

If Ford are testing outside the rules then that is cheating, and the organisers should penalise them in some way.

Yeah, it's kinda unsportsmanlike.

Having not seen the first BTCC race, I would be betting that the championship looks like a Honda or Nissan one. Assuming that, perhaps it is a good idea for Ford and Vauxhall to put in a few extra tests to narrow the competitive gap? Hey, I think WE all should turn a blind eye if Vauxhall tests!! =)

Nobody has seen the first race yet it isn't on until the 9th of April ;)

RIKB wrote:

>Nobody has seen the first race yet it isn't >on until the 9th of April
>
Pardon my poor grammar, but that was what I meant. =) Until they race for the first time this year, we will not know for sure. My predictions were based on past performance.

Hey, anyone know the stats as to the percentage of teams that eventually won the championship after winning the first race of the season? Didn't Audi and Renault do that in their respective years?