All 10 teams head to Bahrain this week for three days of running before the season gets underway at the end of the month.

At 42, Alonso is the oldest driver on the grid and entered the sport at a time when testing was unlimited.

Over the years, testing restrictions have been introduced as a means of cutting costs and now leaves teams just three days of running.

According to Alonso, it’s not enough.

“I’ve been thinking all winter about this, how unfair is [it] that we have one day and a half to prepare a world championship,” the two-time champ began.

“There’s no other sport in the world…

“With all the money involved, and with all the marketing and the good things that we say about Formula 1, and being closer and closer to the fans, I cannot understand why we then go to Bahrain for four days, which could be two and two for the drivers.

“If you go to three, which is not even, which is an odd number, you cannot divide [fairly] between the drivers.

“And I don’t know why we don’t go with two cars.”

Most teams opt to split the running across the three days, giving each driver one full day and splitting the remaining time in half.

Others alternate drivers between the morning and afternoon sessions on all three days.

However, the argument against running multiple cars was largely cost-related in previous years and has become somewhat moot.

Since testing has moved to Bahrain, which has also hosted the opening round of the year, teams have already incurred the freight costs of moving all the equipment needed to run a second car.

The only additional cost would therefore be further staff and running costs of the car itself.

Ironically, teams run two cars during post-season testing in Abu Dhabi, where one of the regular drivers fills one car and a ‘young driver’ the other.

For the past two years, that has been a one-day test for teams, with one car set aside for Pirelli tyre testing.

With that model transferred to pre-season, running could be reduced to two days with two cars apiece, mitigating costs while increasing the total running, not to mention equalising it for the drivers.

Testing in Bahrain begins on February 21 with the action broadcast in Australia by Fox Sports.