Kimi Raikkonen will no longer take part in the Young Driver Test on Friday after the Lotus team decided he would be underutilised under the regulations restricting the race driver’s programmes at Silverstone.

“Once details of what race drivers were allowed to do here became apparent, we would have only been able to conduct a very limited programme with Kimi,” Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane said. “If we were to run him, it would compromise the other development work we want to do with the car here. By running Nico again we’ll be able to build on the work already carried out and hopefully be in the best position to develop the E21 ahead of Budapest, whilst also conducting the necessary tyre testing for Pirelli.”

Race drivers are allowed to take part in the test this year but only if they stick to a run plan dictated by tyre supplier Pirelli. Development work may only be done by drivers who have less than two grands prix experience so Lotus will put Nicolas Prost back in the car on Friday.

Mark Webber was also pulled from the programme this morning.

Red Bull will still make use of Sebastian Vettel for Friday afternoon though and Ferrari has also opted to keep Felipe Massa for a half day’s testing.

Photo: Lotus F1 Team Twitter