Pre-season testing for the 2011 season kicks-off at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Cheste on the outskirts of Valencia on Tuesday morning.
Eight teams will be using their 2011 cars, whilst McLaren, Force India, Hispania and Virgin will use their 2010 cars to gather data on the new Pirelli tyres.
The world champion, Sebastian Vettel, will be behind the wheel of the RB7 on day one of testing as well as the morning of day two, before handing the car over the Mark Webber for the remainder of Wednesday and Thursday.
Gary Paffett will drive the MP4-25 with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button taking over on Wed/Thu.
Most teams will share testing duties equally, although Ferrari and Renault have given their first seat drivers extra duty.
Meanwhile, Force India, Sauber and Virgin will give their rookie’s more to gain some driving experience.
Hispania are yet to announce their drivers for all three-days testing, but it’s likely Narain Karthikeyan will debut.
Official testing calendar for Cheste:
Team | Chassis | Tue (1st) | Wed (2nd) | Thu (3rd) |
---|---|---|---|---|
01. Red Bull | RB7 | S. Vettel | S. Vettel M. Webber | M. Webber |
02. McLaren | MP4-25 | G. Paffett | L. Hamilton | J. Button |
03. Ferrari | F150 | F. Alonso | F. Alonso | F. Massa |
04. Mercedes | W02 | N. Rosberg M. Schumacher | TBC | TBC |
05. Renault | R31 | V. Petrov | R. Kubica | R. Kubica |
06. Williams | FW33 | R. Barrichello | R. Barrichello P. Maldonado | P. Maldonado |
07. Force India | VJM03 | N. Hulkenberg P. di Resta | P. di Resta | A. Sutil |
08. Sauber | C30 | K. Kobayashi | S. Perez | S. Perez |
09. Toro Rosso | STR6 | J. Alguersuari | J. Alguersuari S. Buemi | S. Buemi |
10. Lotus | TL11 | No Running | H. Kovalainen | J. Trulli |
11. Hispania | F110 | TBC | TBC | TBC |
12. Virgin | VR-01 | J. d’Ambrosio | J. d’Ambrosio | T. Glock |