To test or not to test? That is the question.

Formula One teams love to go testing. Virtually every F1 outfit has a dedicated test team, and some like Ferrari will often test at two different tracks around Europe on the same day.

It costs a lot of money.

The big F1 teams have always resisted any restrictions that the FIA governing body puts on testing, so this year the FIA has offered a new option. Teams that agree to do only 10 days of private testing (with as many cars as they choose) or 20 days of private testing (with a single car) during the season will be permitted to test for two additional hours on the Friday morning of each grand prix weekend. The participating teams can run additional cars and drivers during the two-hour session.

It was assumed that the little teams would jump at opportunity, and Jordan and Minardi promptly signed up for the Friday morning deal. It was also assumed that the powerhouses like Ferrari, McLaren and Williams would not want to participate. And they don't.

In the end, Minardi, Jordan, Jaguar and Renault decided to go for the new offer. (Sauber is still wavering.)

With single-car one-shot qualifying, and with the cars basically being impounded between qualifying Saturday and the race Sunday, Renault's people decided that those two extra hours on Friday morning would be crucial.

"You now have to basically prepare your car by Saturday lunchtime for the race," said Renault's technical director Mike Gascoyne. "The more information you have the better, and the teams that test on Friday morning will have three cars running for two extra hours. In effect, your race preparation has to almost be decided by Friday night. By that stage we will have run three cars for two hours plus the two cars for one hour. We will have a lot more information to set up the car for the race."

A couple of things have gone against the teams that signed up for Friday testing. The FIA will ban traction control and other electronic driver aids at mid-season, and the four Friday teams will have little opportunity to test and prepare for that. And tire suppliers Bridgestone and Michelin have recently decided to limit the number of tire compounds available to the Friday four.

Still, Gascoyne believes that Renault made the right decision.

"It is a good rule because it allows teams to save money and have a competitive edge by running on Friday offset against the disadvantage of not testing," he said. "We looked at that and you do have to weigh the engineering risks. If you have a reliability problem with the chassis or engine we cannot go out to Silverstone and run around and fix it."

While it was very unlikely that a big team like Williams BMW would sign up for Friday testing, it did consider it very carefully.

"We evaluated the pros and cons," said Sam Michael, the chief operations engineer at Williams. "If you want to go with Friday testing you have to have a car that is reliable. Teams like Renault had a car that came out very early. We couldn't do that because we couldn't guarantee the reliability."

	Renault and Alonso will make use of the extra practice time on GP weekends.

"It has got worse with the rule changes because to get prepared for the British Grand Prix with no traction control or launch control needs a lot of testing, " Michael added, "and that is going to change tire direction. They (the Friday testers) will have an advantage over a race weekend by getting two more hours of setup work than the other teams, which is going to help with the new rules because you have to fix your race setup by qualifying because you are not allowed to change it overnight. We looked at it and decided it was not for us, and with the latest rule changes we are definitely sure of it."

One reason Renault went for the option was to try to get an advantage over the fiercely contested mid-pack.

"If you are doing everything the same as everybody we already know who we are," said Renault F1's director Flavio Briatore. "I believe that no teams took Friday into consideration. No big team explored Friday because they want to do 80,000 kilometers of testing. This is great. We do 17,000 kilometers of testing and make money while we are racing."

"We looked at the options and we believed our best option was Friday," he added. "It is not a question of budget because we never fired anybody from the test team. In the middle of the season we will see if we were right or not."

The condition of the track surface and the grip levels change considerably during the course of a race weekend as the cars blow the slippery dust of the road and put rubber into the racing groove.

One team boss has labeled the Friday testing teams as "track sweepers."

But Briatore pointed out that teams frequently pound around for days testing at a track, find a perfect chassis setup, and then return to race at the same venue a few weeks later only to find that chassis settings no longer are any good.

"We go to Silverstone to test one week before the race," he said. "The car is terrific. We get to Friday (practice) and the car is junk!"

Furthermore, Briatore believes that testing for days on end doesn't always pay off. Weather and mechanical problems can hamper the amount of work accomplished.

"You go testing for five or six days and maybe you have one good day," Briatore said. "I have seen the (testing) reports in the last three years and they always starts with 'Unfortunately'. People went testing only because somebody else went testing."

"Now on Friday the focus will be much clearer for the engineers and the concentration is there and you testing in the place where you are racing," he added.

The extra track time leading up to the race is going to be extremely beneficial, Briatore said, especially to someone like Renault's new driver Fernando Alonso who doesn't have a lot of experience at some circuits.

"Sometimes you go mad (trying to find mechanical/aerodynamic advantage) in the car for two or three tenths of a second," Briatore said. "I am sure that a driver getting two extra hours at a circuit like Monte Carlo will find two or three tenths himself. Especially with Alonso, we give have the possibility to run him more."

Renault has hired the experienced Allan McNish who will test alongside Alonso and Trulli on the Friday morning at every Grand Prix.

To test or not to test?

The answer to that question will become apparent at each of this year's 16 grand prix weekends. Round one is in Australia on March 7-9.