Red Bull will complete 1000 km of testing for Pirelli
Red Bull Racing team will conduct two days of testing this week in Barcelona on behalf of Pirelli with Sébastien Buemi and Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel with a 2011 RB7.
The Red Bull Racing team will complete 1000 kilometers of testing for Pirelli at the Barcelona-Catalonia circuit this week. The Austrian team will provide a RB7 – dating from 2011 – to Pirelli on Wednesday and Thursday for tire testing for 2014.
Mercedes had conducted similar tests following the Spanish Grand Prix but with its 2013 car – which the FIA’s International Tribunal had deemed a violation of the regulations, leading to the German team being excluded from young driver tests. However, the tests conducted by Red Bull will not pose a problem as the team will not use a recent car, as stipulated by the regulations.
« Pirelli approached all the teams to see if they were willing to provide a 2011 car to conduct tests for the 2014 tires. We made a car available to Pirelli, » said Christian Horner at Monza, as quoted by Reuters.
The Austrian team will run its third driver, Sébastien Buemi, and probably its future driver, Daniel Ricciardo, as stated by the Red Bull team director: « Sébastien Buemi, our test driver, will drive on the first day, and Daniel Ricciardo will probably drive on the second because it’s an opportunity for him to get better acquainted with the team. »
In order to eliminate any advantage Red Bull might gain from these tests, Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s director of competition, aimed to reassure: “They will not know what they are going to test – and they will have no indication of the type of tires they are running on. The tires will be round, black, and unmarked.”
But that hasn’t stopped some criticism, notably from the Sahara Force India team where Otmar Szafnauer, the sporting director of the Indian team, believes that his team was not offered such an opportunity: « It’s a huge advantage for them [Red Bull]. We were not offered to do such testing. »
Argument that Paul Hembery wanted to refute: « We asked everyone. We have another team that is interested but no date for the moment. » According to Speed Week, it could be the McLaren team.
