With a series of fast races coming up, the teams went in search of testing opportunities at F1's faster tracks after the Hungarian Grand Prix. Silverstone was available for two days testing and McLaren, Arrows and Jaguar were running. Over in Italy, Ferrari, Sauber, BAR, Minardi and Jordan were out at Mugello. This test was Jean Alesi's first real opportunity to start to build up some mileage in the Jordan. Williams and Benetton headed for the Iberian sunshine of Barcelona for a Michelin only session.

At all of these tests, the big names were at the front and there was little to be gleaned from the times that different cars were setting. One reason was that many teams were now starting to test parts for their 2002 cars. They opted to do this because the new early winter testing ban meant that it was important to be ahead of their normal schedules for development of the 2002 cars.

Alex Yoong was out for Minardi attempting to rack up the miles needed for his superlicence. He racked up 200km in one day, a little less than two thirds of a GP distance. Since that was about as far as a Minardi can hope to run on a Sunday, that should have been OK. In the end, it was OK. Yoong got his licence and Minardi announced that the Malaysian would drive for them at Monza. So, Spa would be Marques' last race for the team.

The Mugello test was punctuated by another heavy shunt for Michael Schumacher. He was unhurt but he cannot have been happy that his car simply shed its rear wing at 180mph.