Red Bull and Toro Rosso alone in Abu Dhabi for the Rookie Days?

Paul Hembery, the motorsport director at Pirelli, revealed that only 10 teams wanted to conduct the tests for young drivers at Silverstone in July, as was recently mentioned.

The two teams that prefer to conduct young driver tests in November in Abu Dhabi would be Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso. They are the only two teams that do not wish to participate in the young driver tests, initially scheduled in Abu Dhabi in November, but which, due to scheduling reasons, might eventually be held at Silverstone in July.

Pirelli is involved in the discussions because the Italian manufacturer must bring the same tire specifications to both events as they do not want any team to gain an advantage from running during the July or November test: « We have 12 partners and we must do what our partners want. Apparently, 10 of them would like to go to Silverstone, and two to Abu Dhabi – so this means we will not be able to bring new products during the young driver tests », said Paul Hembery, quoted by Autosport.

However, the teams initially set to conduct the young driver tests at Silverstone can still change their minds at the last minute if the weather is not favorable for gathering sufficient information on the new parts that will probably be brought, as in previous editions.