Red Bull will conduct a two-day, 1000 kilometre tyre test with Pirelli mid next week in Barcelona.
The news revives memories of this year’s Mercedes ‘test-gate’ scandal, but Auto Motor und Sport reports that the world champion team will be using a 2011 car, not the title-leading RB9. And the race drivers will not be in action.
Instead, it will be test driver Sebastien Buemi alongside 2014 race driver Daniel Ricciardo. Their task, confirmed by Pirelli motor sport boss Paul Hembery, will be to test 2014-specification tyres.
But not everyone is happy. “It’s a huge advantage for them,” said Force India sporting director Otmar Szafnauer. “We were not offered a test like this.” It is believed however that a condition of Pirelli’s tyre testing with individual teams is that all of the other teams also have to be offered a similar opportunity.
Hembery denied Szafnauer’s claim. “We asked everyone. We have another team that is interested but no date as yet,” he insisted.
Info: GMM
