Pirelli sign Lucas di Grassi as new test driver – Formula 1 update
Pirelli has confirmed that Lucas di Grassi will be their official test driver as Pedro de la Rosa shifted to McLaren as their test driver for the 2011 Formula 1 season.
The Brazilian Grassi was the GP2 Series driver but the Virgin brought him to the main stream at its debut 2010 season in Formula 1 sport. He started his first season with his teammate Timo Glock and finished in 24th position
in the championship. The 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix was the best race event for him where he finished in 14th position and made Virgin’s debut season good among the others F1 teams.
In the ending days of the 2010 season, team announced the Jerome d’Ambrosio as the new partner of Glock for the 2011 season as a result Grassi left without further driving with the Virgin team.
Earlier this year, the 22-year-old driver dismissed the initial reports about Pirelli ‘speculation’ but being a tyre test driver he admitted that these tyres working would be interesting throughout the upcoming season as the Pirelli rubber degrades more.
On the other hand, Pirelli have started working on the silver marking tyres as these were blurred a bit with the original black colour of the Pirelli rubber over the Australian race.
Before the start of the Melbourne race, Pirelli revealed the final marking of different types of tyres for the 2011 season. Pirelli mentioned that each Pirelli tyre will carry its own affixed colouring on its side-wall.
The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) officials have already announced before the season-opener that hard and soft compounds of Pirelli tyres will be used for the Australia, Malaysia and China races.
Former Pirelli test driver Pedro de la Rosa has discussed the tyres working and said that the drivers definitely expect a lot from these compounds for 2011 races and their machine’s run are mostly dependable on these tyres but they would have use the best
strategy to overcome the degradation issue in their races.
The next Sepang race could be the toughest challenge for 2011 Pirelli tyres. Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery told the media, “The nature of the Sepang circuit and the more than 50 degrees of track temperature will probably be the most aggressive
combination for our tyres.”
He went on to say, “Of course, any rain could change the situation, but it is probable that under normal circumstances the Malaysian Grand Prix will see an average of four stops (per driver).”
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