Pirelli today confirmed that Pedro de la Rosa will take-over Nick Heidfeld’s testing role alongside Romain Grosjean.
The F1 Times reported the likely switch between Heidfeld and De la Rosa early last week, as the Spaniards wealth of experience with McLaren would be a big boost to Pirelli.
CEO of Pirelli, Francesco Gori, commented on the appointment of De la Rosa within the testing team: “So far our work has been carried out by Nick Heidfeld, but as he is going back to racing, he will be replaced by Pedro de la Rosa and Romain Grosjean.
“They will test until the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, when afterwards all of the teams will test for the first time with Pirelli tyres.”
Gori went on to discuss the current development of tyre and the limit’s it must meet.
“The design and shape is very critical, and we have to provide the teams with this because they have very few months to get this fixed for next year.
“This is something we have achieved, and job number two is the structure of the tyre. This is to make sure that is can support to stress and speed of a Formula 1 car, and we are in the final stage of development there.
“The next challenge is the compounds. Different solutions are currently being tested, on tracks from Monza – the fastest – to Jerez – the most abrasive.”
