Australian drivers are set to lead a push to have Formula One pre-season testing moved from Spain.
All teams were frustrated by the dismal cold weather and rain in Barcelona which prevented them from gathering much useful data on their 2013 cars.
One of the biggest issues is with new Pirelli tyres, and drivers trying to understand their characteristics on a cold and wet track with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix just days later in hot conditions.
Daniel Ricciardo and Mark Webber say that the traditional test sessions in Spain are becoming increasingly irrelevant and should be staged in a warmer climate, so more meaningful data can be gathered.
“Barcelona was pretty disappointing in terms of how the tyres behaved and how restricted we were in getting the information we wanted,” Webber said.
“In the future now, knowing we’ve had a couple of winters on the bounce where it has been on the chillier side, we might look at some other venues.”
Ricciardo said that while the new Torro Rosso came with new more advanced features, testing of the improvements was very limited.
“We definitely didn’t learn as much as we wanted from winter testing,” Ricciardo said.
“The tyres have changed this year and they are sort of asking to be worked in hotter conditions.
“Things like that can give us a bit of a false reading and it probably makes us scratch our heads even more.”
Ricciardo said all teams were frustrated being forced to line up in Melbourne knowing much less about their cars than they should.
“I get the feeling that if we go to places like Abu Dhabi or even somewhere in Aus, or Malaysia it will be much more relevant as we start the season on this side of the world,” Ricciardo said.
“We’ll try and persuade a few people to get on board.”
Ricciardo said that testing in Spain was of so little value that much of it would have to be repeated on race weekends.