Lotus drop Kimi Raikkonen from Young Driver Test schedule – Formula 1 News
Lotus have dropped their driver, Kimi Raikkonen from the schedule of the Young Driver Test taking place at Silverstone circuit because of limited running opportunity for the race drivers.
According to the FIA, the race drivers are only allowed to take part in the test for one day to evaluate the performance of the new Pirelli tyres. Therefore, the trackside operations director of Lotus, Alan Permane asserted that
they have decided to drop Raikkonen from the schedule of the test as it will not provide them with the desired result because of restriction on race drivers’ participation.
“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 explained.
Besides, he said that if they allow the Finnish driver to run the car, it would compromise their development plan which can create difficulties for them afterwards. Therefore, he stated that they will call the test driver, Nicolas
Prost, to run again on Friday in order to gather the necessary information about their car so as to make the essential step-ups for the forthcoming races. In addition, he said that their main focus is to collect some significant data related to the new Pirelli
tyres to improve their tyre management for the season ahead.
Besides, he said that they are hoping to come up stronger in the Hungarian Grand Prix which is to be held at Hungaroring on July 28, 2013.
“If we were to run him, it would compromise the other development work we want to do with the car here,” he said.
“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,” he added.
The Enstone based squad have performed convincingly well in the season until now. They are currently standing at 4th place in the constructors’ championship. It will be interesting to see how they perform in the approaching
races.
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