Next Tuesday the only permitted tests during the Formula 1 Championship will start in Mugello Italy and all F1 Teams will be there minus HRT.
This tests are the only opportunity for the teams to test new solutions and major upgrades during the season because on Fridays practices even that is allowed to test whatever you want no team has enough time to bring major upgrades as you can normally do on a regular test day.
The F1 updated cars will debut in Mugello on May 1st and the team most eager to start those tests is Ferrari. The Scuderia is in desperate need of progress after a terrible start of the championship. The F2012 which was supposed to be an “unbeatable structure” proved to be a very hard to understand and set-up car and the Italian team has to improve far beyond it’s competition needs in order to remain in the fight not only for at least one title but for the top 3, because Lotus and Mercedes are looking very strong while Red Bull found new speed in Bahrain and have definitely closed the gap to McLaren which was the team that looked best at the beginning of the championship.
Lewis Hamilton who was eager to drive in Mugello tests has been side-lined today by his team when they confirmed that only its reserve drivers Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey will get to drive in the upcoming Formula 1 tests in Italy.
From Red Bull and Mercedes AMG we are still awaiting confirmation on the drivers. Here is how the line-up looks so far:
|
Team
|
May 1st
|
May 2nd
|
May 3rd
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Red Bull Racing
|
TBA | TBA | TBA |
|
McLaren Mercedes
|
 Paffett/ Turvey |
Gary Paffett |
Oliver Turvey |
|
Scuderia Ferrari
|
 Fernando Alonso |
 Felipe Massa |
Fernando Alonso |
|
Mercedes AMG
|
TBA | TBA | TBA |
|
Lotus F1 Team
|
 Jerome d’Ambrosio |
 Kimi Raikkonen |
 Romain Grosjean |
|
Sahara Force India
|
Jules Bianchi |
Paul di Resta |
 Nico Hulkenberg |
|
Sauber F1 Team
|
 Kamui Kobayashi |
Kamui Kobayashi |
 Sergio Perez |
|
Toro Rosso
|
Jean Eric Vergne |
Vergne /  Ricciardo |
Daniel Ricciardo |
|
Williams F1 Team
|
Valtteri Bottas |
Bruno Senna |
 Pastor Maldonado |
|
Caterham F1 Team
|
Rodolfo Gonzalez |
 Vitaly Petrov |
Heikki Kovalainen |
|
Marussia Racing
|
Charles Pic |
Pic / Glock |
Timo Glock |
Follow @TheFormula1Blog to stay up to date about the drivers line-up changes.
