In the round-up: Mercedes’ race drivers will be in action for the first time this year at next month’s Pirelli tests in France and Spain.
In brief
Mercedes to use race drivers for tyre test
Mercedes will call upon their race drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for their two Pirelli tyre tests in February.
All teams are invited through the year to conduct development tests for Pirelli using the previous season’s cars, and most of the tests focused on the 2023-spec tyres will be done before the season starts.
Mercedes will be trialling slick tyres on 1st-2nd February at Paul Ricard with Hamilton and Russell, before AlphaTauri then do two days on grooved tyres for wet conditions in the two days after that.
On 7th-8th February, the Mercedes drivers return to action to do further slick tyre testing at Jerez alongside Aston Martin and their race drivers. While other teams have done private testing with older cars, the Pirelli development days will mark Hamilton and Russell’s first on-track outings of 2023.
Rain hampers Shwartzman’s Ferrari test
Ferrari meanwhile have already been out on track at their own Fiorano test circuit, with Robert Shwartzman in the car yesterday and Carlos Sainz Jnr driving today.
The SF21 car from 2021 was chosen for the test, which is a staple of Ferrari’s pre-season preparations to get drivers ready to the physical challenges of an F1 car again. Shwartzman was driving as he has been promoted to being one of the team’s reserve drivers this year, and had most of his running take place in the rain and therefore only completed 87 laps over the whole day.
Observing the test, and integrating themselves into the test team, were Ferrari juniors Arthur Leclerc, Maya Weug and Aurelia Nobels.
Euroformula Open to hold 80th Pau Grand Prix
Euroformula Open has adjusted its 2023 calendar to feature the 80th edition of the Pau Grand Prix.
The street race in France was first held in 1933 and has been host to cars from Formula 1, 2 and 3 in the past. Since 2019 it has been headlined by Euroformula Open, with double amputee Billy Monger taking a history-making win in the grand prix that year.
In 2020 and 2021 the event did not got ahead due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and returned last year as part of the Euroformula Open calendar for a second time. Vlad Lomko was the winner.
To incorporate the grand prix into its 2023 calendar, having initially organised an eight-round season without it, Euroformula…
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