OFF SEASON TESTING: Pt 1 & 2 Abu Dhabi Rookie and Pirelli Tests

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by blaffer

It was reported here that Renault selected Mikhail Aleshin and Jerome d'Ambrosio for the young driver tests.

That makes it even more likely that if Petrov goes, it won't be another rookie replacing him.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by blaffer

It was reported here that Renault selected Mikhail Aleshin and Jerome d'Ambrosio for the young driver tests.

Aleshin has been known about for a few weeks now, and is actually listed in the opening posyt of this thread. He won the Renault test as part of the reward for winning the Formula Renault 3.5 Series championship this year.


Maldonado confirmed to test for HRT in Abu Dhabi....

2010 GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado will drive for HRT at the Abu Dhabi post-season tests, the team have confirmed. Pastor will get three days in the car during the Pirelli tyre test and the young drivers test, both scheduled for the week following the Yas Marina season finale.
Full story here

He is going to be a busy boy given he is already meant to be doing one day of the rookie tests at Williams....

Hopefully Maldonado now being named for the HRT test is an indication that Hulkenberg is going to retain his seat at Williams, something he more than deserves following his brilliant performance this weekend at Brazil. (Not to mention the points he scored this weekend have jumped Williams up to 6th place and ahead of F1I in the money earning WCC. If Williams maintain that position it will be a healthy increase in their slice of Bernie's 2010 commercial money.)

Recently as we know, the suggestion and admissions from Williams has been of the likleyhood that one of their 2011 race seats would be filled by a pay driver, given their dire lack of sponsorship in place for 2011...... hence Maldonado's selection to drive for Williams in the rookie tests which were said to be an evaluation of the level of talent he has, to back up the 15 million euro sponsorship package he comes with.

News to me was that Maldonado also once tested with the Minardi F1 team back in 2004.

[jab]

Paul di Resta, Antonio Felix da Costa and Yelmer Buurman will test for Force India

Rio Haryanto will test for Virgin as he was the top Manor driver in GP3. I don't think Razia will be testing for them

[E.B]

British Formula 3 champion, and Red Bull Junior, Jean-Eric Vergne will test for Toro Rosso next Tuesday and Wednesday (November 17 and 18) in Abu Dhabi.....

[E.B]

I see McLaren dont feel the team's race drivers, Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button need to be present at the Pirelli Tyre Tests next week at Abu Dhabi.

They will use Paffett and Turvey for the whole week. Gary Paffett will drive on the final day of the young driver test (Wednesday) and the first day of the tyre test (Friday), while McLaren junior driver Oliver Turvey will drive on the other two days (Tuesday and Saturday).

Seems to me odd at best. I would have thought that the race drivers would have been itching to see what tyres they were likely to be racing on next year. Certainly at this stage it seems every other team, certainly the majors, are going to be there with their race drivers.

Mercedes will split duties between Nico Rosberg (Friday) and Michael Schumacher (Saturday). Ferrari will also use its race drivers, with Felipe Massa running on Friday and Fernando Alonso on Saturday, as will Williams with Nico Hulkenberg (Friday) and Rubens Barrichello (Saturday).
Red Bull Racing will use just one driver - Sebastian Vettel - for both days, with Renault doing likewise and using Robert Kubica only.

[jab]

Originally Posted by jab

Paul di Resta, Antonio Felix da Costa and Yelmer Buurman will test for Force India

Rio Haryanto will test for Virgin as he was the top Manor driver in GP3. I don't think Razia will be testing for them

I'll correct myself - according to Autosport, Razia is indeed testing for Virgin. Pretty much everything else is as we know

[Tin top racer]

Originally Posted by E.B

I see McLaren dont feel the team's race drivers, Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button need to be present at the Pirelli Tyre Tests next week at Abu Dhabi.

They will use Paffett and Turvey for the whole week. Gary Paffett will drive on the final day of the young driver test (Wednesday) and the first day of the tyre test (Friday), while McLaren junior driver Oliver Turvey will drive on the other two days (Tuesday and Saturday).

Seems to me odd at best. I would have thought that the race drivers would have been itching to see what tyres they were likely to be racing on next year. Certainly at this stage it seems every other team, certainly the majors, are going to be there with their race drivers.

Mercedes will split duties between Nico Rosberg (Friday) and Michael Schumacher (Saturday). Ferrari will also use its race drivers, with Felipe Massa running on Friday and Fernando Alonso on Saturday, as will Williams with Nico Hulkenberg (Friday) and Rubens Barrichello (Saturday).
Red Bull Racing will use just one driver - Sebastian Vettel - for both days, with Renault doing likewise and using Robert Kubica only.

Interesting RB are just using Vettel...

[tux]

I wouldnt read anything into Webber not testing with Red Bull, Hamilton and Button arnt testing for Mclaren.

[Daisy]

So I guess this is the list then:

Ferrari: Bianchi
Mclaren: Paffet & Turvey
Mercedes: Bird
Red Bull: Ricciardo
Renault: D'Ambrosio & Aleshin
Force India: Di Resta & Da Costa/Buurman
Williams: Maldonado & Stoneman
Toro Rosso: Vergne
Sauber: Perez & Gutierrez
Lotus: Fauzy
Virgin: Haryanto & Razia
HRT: Maldonado & ?

HRT has a spot left since Maldonado can't drive 2 cars at one day. I heard SLF champion Davide Rigon is seeking a ride, but does he have the cash?

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Daisy

HRT has a spot left since Maldonado can't drive 2 cars at one day. I heard SLF champion Davide Rigon is seeking a ride, but does he have the cash?

My understanding is Maldonado is down to drive 3 days of the 4 with HRT, the other day (one of the rookie days) being with Williams. The other rookie day Stoneman (F2 winner) is in the Williams. (We know Barrichello and Hulkenberg are in the Williams for the Pirelli component of the 4 days.)

I may be imagining it but I thought also that the regular Williams tester ( Valleri Bottas) who would have otherwise not got any mileage in the tests, will take Maldonado's place at HRT for the rookie day that Pastor is at Williams.

Seems to be part of the Williams-HRT alliance that will see HRT using Williams powertrains instead of the woeful X-trac system that comes with the Cosworth package. They also will be using one of the Williams wind tunnels.

I was sort of hoping that with the association perhaps we might see Maldonado contracted to Williams to get his $15 million package and then handballed on to HRT to drive, perhapswith the transmission and technical package being at next to nothing in exchange, with perhaps both teams carrying reference to Maldonado's backers. The cash influx to Williams could then be used to allow them to keep Hulkenberg and Barrichello rather than having to drop one of them for a pay driver. The fact that Maldonado is doing the Pirelli tyre tests for HRT, a job most are giving to their race drivers, made me think this was a potential hint.

Maybe that is all a bit simplistic in theory, but I guess I am keen to see Hulkenberg not get palmed off to say HRT....

[Teretonga]

Considering Sir FW opposition to the 'customer cars for teams in F1' concept here he may now be regretting what could have been an excellent alliance for Williams....

Even now a combination of HRT, Toyota F1 engineering and Williams GP engineering may result in 4 very strong ars on the grid in 20112012 and beyond that if Toyota build a customer engine.....

A real alliance between Williams and HRT could be a strength for both teams on the share of technical information on everything from tyres, transmission and engine (already!) ideas to aero development.
As for Hulkenberg or Barrichello or Maldonado in the revised Toyota chassis for 2011 is that such a bad deal....

[jondownunder]

Vladimir Arabadzhiev and Rodolfo Gonzalez will test for Lotus:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88163

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by jondownunder

Vladimir Arabadzhiev and Rodolfo Gonzalez will test for Lotus:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88163

Mind you it'll be interesting to see if Gonzalez can get into the Lotus before Maldonado can get into whatever he's going to be trying!!!

[bella]

i'm sure gonzales will be as quick to bin it as maldonado will be. anyone want to place a bet on who's going to shunt first?

they're clearly going for trying to make the budget to pay for the teams staying out there then, rather than actually trying genuine talent.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bella

i'm sure gonzales will be as quick to bin it as maldonado will be. anyone want to place a bet on who's going to shunt first?

they're clearly going for trying to make the budget to pay for the teams staying out there then, rather than actually trying genuine talent.

Let's poll it, come on!!

[bella]

fell off my chair laughing at will buxton's latest tweet:

Ooh, mega happy that GP2 racer Vlado Arabadziev's running for Lotus in their young driver test! I reckon the kids got some talent.

muppets.

[blaffer]

Here's the young drivers line-up for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Btw: does anyone have a list of last year's rookies and how they 'evolved' this year?

[jab]

I was about to post a full list with explanations but accidentally deleted it. So here's just a list. Most of them didn't have particularly successful years

BMW Sauber
Esteban Gutierrez
Alexander Rossi
Bertrand Baguette

Brawn
Mike Conway
Marcus Ericsson

Ferrari
Pablo Sanchez-Lopez
Daniel Zampieri
Marco Zipoli
Jules Bianchi

Force India
Paul di Resta
JR Hildebrand

McLaren
Gary Paffett
Oliver Turvey

Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo

Renault
Bertrand Baguette
Lucas di Grassi
Ho-Pin Tung

Toro Rosso
Brendon Hartley
Mirko Bortolotti

Williams
Nico Hulkenberg
Andy Soucek

[chunterer]

Some early pics have cropped up on the web, gpupdate I think?

The schedule says Gutierrez and Perez down to drive today but from the images all i can see is a rather perse lipped Sergio hanging around the garage watching Esteban getting nicely acclamitised!

Didn't realise Dean Stoneman was such a burly guy either, he reminds me of Mansell or Mark Blundell in stature!!

[Peter Mallett]

In early running Ricciardo put in the quickest lap, not too shabby in the 1:40s.

[bella]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Didn't realise Dean Stoneman was such a burly guy either, he reminds me of Mansell or Mark Blundell in stature!!

i think they're going to need a shoehorn he's a good lad, acclimatised quickly to the fr3.5 car at barcelona so hopefully he'll be on the ball with the f1 car too

morning report: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88317

[bella]

ricciardo fastest again, full day report here: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88327

[Dan Friel]

Is there any live timing?? Not seen a link anywhere...

[bella]

no, tsl timing are doing it and there's nothing on their site

[chunterer]

Right so Sergio not running today, that explains why he looked a bit pensive in the garage!

Bianchi was a bit slow, must be running that new heavyweight aero package.