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Young Drivers Test: Ricciardo Stays Top of the Timesheets

Daniel Ricciardo remained on top of the time sheets at the end of day 2 of the Young Drivers Test in Silvertone.

Ricciardo’s time of 1:32.972 in the Toro Rosso was the fastest of the day. Testing for Red Bull in the afternoon session he managed a 1:33.187 with the RB9, just two tenths slower than the time set in his Toro Rosso, showing us that a driver cannot just jump into a good car and set fastest laps. According to AutoSport, he ran off the track at Luffield, briefly stopping the session.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg finished tenth for the day with a time of 1:34.224, who carried out tyre evaluations for most of the day.

The full classification for the day is included below:

July 18, 2013
Young Drivers Test: Ricciardo Fastest in Thursday Morning Session

Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest time for the morning session of 1:32.972 at the Young Drivers Test at Silverstone on Thursday.

Ricciardo will take Mark Webber’s place in the RB9 this afternoon to continue his running for the day. Antonio Felix da Costa, in the Red Bull set the second fastest time of 1:33.958.

Here’s the full time sheet for the mornings session:

July 18, 2013
McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen tops day one of Young Driver Test

McLaren test driver Kevin Magnussen topped the first day of Formula One’s Young Driver Test at Silverstone.

Magnussen did not spend much of the session at the top of the timesheets until the final 20 minutes of the afternoon session when he fired out on medium tyres and set a 1.33.602.

Here is the timesheet for the afternoon session.

July 17, 2013
Kimi Raikkonen no longer taking part in Young Driver Test

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

July 17, 2013
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone formally indicted

Formula One chief, Bernie Ecclestone, has been formally indicted by German prosecutors investigating allegations of bribery.

The charges relate to allegations of bribery against Ecclestone and in the wake of the German banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky – who Ecclestone is accused of bribing, being sentenced to 8 and a half years in prison after being convicted of breach of trust, tax evasion and bribery for the £28 million received from Ecclestone during the sale of Formula One in 2005.

Ecclestone confirmed receiving the indictment on Wednesday, telling the Financial Times, “I have just spoken to my lawyers and they have received an indictment. It’s being translated into English.”

Ecclestone has always maintained his innocence and said that they will be defending the indictment. “We are defending it properly,” he said. “It will be an interesting case. It’s a pity it’s happened.”

He has admitted making the payments to Gribkowsky but has always maintained that he had been threatened with blackmail. Ecclestone previously told the Munich state court that he felt pressured into the payment in 2006 because he was worried that Gribkowsky would report him to British tax authorities.

Ecclestone also confirmed that the prosecutors are “alleging I bribed someone” but continues to say he did “nothing illegal”.

In December last year, Ecclestone told the Sunday Telegraph that if he was charged, he would likely be removed from his position. “It [the CVC] will probably be forced to get rid of me if the Germans come after me. It’s pretty obvious, if I’m locked up.”

July 17, 2013
Young Driver Test morning timesheet – James Calado on top

James Calado put Force India at the top of the timesheets on the opening morning of the Young Driver Test at Silverstone.

His benchmark of 1.33.986 is just over half a second slower than the fastest lap of this year’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, set by Red Bull driver Mark Webber.

Here is the full time sheet following the first morning of testing at the Silverstone Young Driver Test.

July 17, 2013
Mark Webber to miss out on Silverstone test as Red Bull change plans

Mark Webber will no longer take part in the F1 Young Driver Test at Silverstone after Red Bull announced a late change to their planned schedule.

Webber, who will be leaving Formula One to drive for Porsche at the end of the season, was due to test on Thursday afternoon.

Regular team race drivers have been allowed to join this year’s test in order to assist Pirelli with development of their new tyres but this is only on the condition that they run a strictly-defined Pirelli programme that covers two half-days of running. “The teams will have a very clear tyre test programme; they have to run what we tell them to run,” said Pirelli boss Paul Hembery.

Red Bull are keen to evaluate Daniel Ricciardo and with Sebastian Vettel due to test on Friday afternoon, they have decided to alter their testing plan. “Following a clarification of the permitted programmes from Pirelli and the FIA for this week’s Silverstone test, Infiniti Red Bull Racing has revised its driver line up,” the team announced in a press release issued just before the lunch break on Wednesday.

Antonio Felix da Costa, originally scheduled to hand over to Ricciardo for the afternoon, will now test all day today and again on Thursday morning, before Ricciardo takes over.

Carlos Sainz Jr will then test on Friday morning and Sebastian Vettel will take over from him in the afternoon.

Ricciardo will also be testing for Toro Rosso on Thursday morning, right before he switches to the RB9.

July 17, 2013
Codemasters to Launch F1 2013 game

Codemaster’s has announced that F1 2013 will be released, worldwide, in the next few months.

The software company, who made their first F1 game in 2011, announced a new feature of the game that is sure to please the purists. A new gameplay mode, called F1 Classics, will be featured that allows fans a chance at taking on legendary drivers on some of the most iconic racing tracks throughout the world.

The F1 Classics gameplay mode will be introduced by legendary Murray Walker and will enable gamers to race the classic Williams, Lotus and Ferrari cars of the 80s.Gamers will be able to compete on famous circuits such as Brands Hatch and Jerez against greats of the sports like Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi and Gerhard Berger. Codemasters have suggested that more legends may be include in the F1 Classics mode but at still to confirm exactly which heroes from the past will make an appearance.

F1 2013 will be available on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation3.

Codemasters have released these ‘work in progress’ screenshots to whet the appetite.

July 16, 2013

Everything you need to know about the Young Driver’s Test

Formula 1’s annual Young Driver’s Test starts tomorrow on the Silverstone race track.

However, this year’s three day test session has a bit of a twist to it. As a result of the tyre troubles at Silverstone grand prix the test has been transformed into an emergency tyre test for the Italian manufacturer to regain its footing in the sport.

Teams won’t have free reign to do as the please throughout the three days though. Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, has clearly stipulated what can and cannot be done.

The FIA will send its own observer to the test session to ensure that no current race driver complete any development work for their respective teams.
The current race drivers may complete one full day of work on the emergency tyre testing program.
The ‘young driver’ will be permitted to carry out development work on their team cars.

Mercedes will sit out the three day test session as the Brackley based team serves a ban imposed on them for conducting a tyre test after the Spanish grand prix. Lewis Hamilton has voiced his concern on the dangers of Mercedes not being allowed to test the new tyres before their introduction at the Hungarian grand prix.

“I don’t know if people fully appreciate how big a negative it is for us not to do the test.We are going to go to Hungary when other people have gone and tested (the new tyres with) different ride-heights, different pressures, got their car ready for a long run so they arrive ready.We don’t have any of that information so when we get there we’re going to go into it blind.We shouldn’t be in this position in sport, but that’s the way it is,” said Hamilton.

But it seems the Brit’s fears will be assuaged as Pirelli motorsport director, Paul Hemberey, announced that Mercedes will recieve data on findings about the new tyres.

The Young Driver’s Test was institued with the aim of showcasing up-and-coming talents that could, potentially, be the future of Formula 1.Several current drivers will be present at the test but in amongst will be some eager drivers keen to make their mark.

Team	Wednesday 17th	Thursday 18th	Friday 19th
*Red Bull*	Antonio Felix da Costa Daniel Ricciardo	Antonio Felix da Costa Daniel Ricciardo	Carlos Sainz Jnr Sebastian Vettel
*Ferrari*	Davide Rigon	Davide Rigon	Felipe Massa Davide Rigon
*McLaren*	Kevin Magnussen	Oliver Turvey	Gary Paffett
*Lotus*	Nicolas Prost	Davide Valsecchi	Nicolas Prost
*Mercedes*	Banned
*Sauber*	Robin Frijns	Robin Frijns Nico Hulkenberg	Kimiya Sato
*Force India*	James Calado	Paul di Resta	Adrian Sutil
*Williams*	Daniel Juncadella	Pastor Maldonado	Susie Wolff
*Toro Rosso*	Johnny Cecotto Jnr	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Jean-Eric Vergne Daniil Kvyat
*Caterham*	Alexander Rossi	Will Stevens	Charles Pic Giedo van der Garde
*Marussia*	Tio Ellinas Max Chilton	Rodolfo Gonzalez	Rodolfo Gonzalez Jules Bianchi

July 16, 2013

No race drivers in McLaren Young Driver Test line up

McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Sergio Perez will not be taking part in the Young Driver Test at Silverstone this week despite the FIA now allowing regular race drivers to take part in order to help Pirelli test tyre development.

This leaves the running up to Kevin Magnussen, Oliver Turvey and Gary Paffett.

New Pirelli tyres which will be used at the Hungarian Grand Prix will be tested by Pirelli at Silverstone during the Young Driver Test but McLaren have opted not to run either Button or Perez.

Magnussen, Turvey and Paffett will each spend one day at the wheel of the McLaren, as they did last year’s three day Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi.

Since teams who make use of regular drivers will have to stick to a test plan decided by Pirelli, the move allows McLaren to dictate their own test plan each day instead.

July 16, 2013