diff --git a/tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
index 6d5539d8f5..c598132b6d 100644
--- a/tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ function(curl_add_runtests _targetname _test_flags)
   if(NOT BUILD_LIBCURL_DOCS)
     string(APPEND _test_flags " !documentation")
   endif()
-  set(_depends "build-certs")
+  set(_depends "")
   # Skip walking through dependent targets before running tests in CI.
   # This avoids: GNU Make doing a slow re-evaluation of all targets and
   # skipping them, MSBuild doing a re-evaluation, and actually rebuilding them.
diff --git a/tests/Makefile.am b/tests/Makefile.am
index 65f07ce62e..7af7800d94 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -160,30 +160,28 @@ perlcheck:
 build-certs:
 	(cd certs && $(MAKE) build-certs)
 
-runtests-pre: perlcheck build-certs
-
-test: runtests-pre all
+test: perlcheck all
 	$(TEST) $(TFLAGS)
 
-quiet-test: runtests-pre all
+quiet-test: perlcheck all
 	$(TEST) $(TEST_Q) $(TFLAGS)
 
-am-test: runtests-pre all
+am-test: perlcheck all
 	$(TEST) $(TEST_AM) $(TFLAGS)
 
-ci-test: runtests-pre all
+ci-test: perlcheck all
 	$(TEST) $(TEST_CI) $(TFLAGS)
 
-full-test: runtests-pre all
+full-test: perlcheck all
 	$(TEST) $(TEST_F) $(TFLAGS)
 
-nonflaky-test: runtests-pre all
+nonflaky-test: perlcheck all
 	$(TEST) $(TEST_NF) $(TFLAGS)
 
-torture-test: runtests-pre all
+torture-test: perlcheck all
 	$(TEST) $(TEST_T) $(TFLAGS)
 
-event-test: runtests-pre all
+event-test: perlcheck all
 	$(TEST) $(TEST_E) $(TFLAGS)
 
 default-pytest: ci-pytest