According to series rules, six days of private testing is allowed for each car entered, along with the six days of official testing.

With Alesi’s son Giuliano jumping from French F4 to GP3 in 2016, the French driver said the amount of private testing available to teams in F3, as well as Formula Renault, was a major turn-off.

“At the moment in Formula Renault and especially European F3, the regulation is not good,” he told Motorsport.com. “For testing, there is too much freedom.

"I don’t like that because, at the end of the day, if you have the budget to make 50 days of testing, you have an advantage and many drivers can do that regularly."

Ready for GP3

Giuliano scored three wins in F4 last year, and his quick progress in his maiden year of single-seaters was enough to convince Jean that he is ready to take the step up to GP3.

“He did only two years of karting and all his rivals, the young drivers start at a very young age these days,” said the ex-Ferrari and Benetton driver.

“So, for me to see him be competitive straightaway in F4, winning three times and [taking] two pole positions, helped in taking the correct decision.”