Young drivers test at Silverstone & Abu Dhabi

With almost everyone pulling out we seem to have forgotten about the young drivers test this week at Silverstone. Williams, Marussia and HRT are the only ones left now, and Chilton and Bottas the only well known names.

Marussia will run Chilton on the first morning and the final afternoon, with Haryanto driving on the Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

Williams will run its test driver Valtteri Bottas for both days, while HRT will hand a first F1 chance to Chinese driver Ma Qing Hua.

With Bottas having a genuine chance of stealing a Williams seat for a race this year I'm sure he'll be pushing hard to prove he's as consistent as he has shown in the past. If there's interest in the test this can be stickied but with only 3 teams due to go out and rain forecasted it could well be a no show.

Help from Wiki for those who may wonder

Forgive me if I don't have high hopes for Ma Qing Hua.....

 

Bottas eager to make most of opportunity with Williams in Silverstone young driver test

Don't understand why more teams aren't testing here. I think there is rules on testing new parts (did I dream that?), but theres so much essentially free data to be collected mid season that for teams who are falling back, like McLaren and Mercedes, it would seem silly not to go.

 

Thanks for posting this up, BLS.

I'd have thought the young driver test would be of interest. I also share your doubts about Ma Qing Hua. All I know of him is that he appeared in the 2009 British Formula 3 Championship, placing 10th (I've just checked); and that the Chinese Touring Car Championship is hardly the most competitive series in the world.

However, I understand he is very heavily backed (financially)…

 

I presume he is a possible Karthekeyan replacement

 

I have high hopes for Bottas. He's impressed in practice sessions this year and seems like a genuinely promising young driver. Plus it'd be good to see another Finn on the grid, even if his name doesn't contain a single 'k' or 'n'. I assume over time though, people will start referring to him as "Valkkeri Bokkanen".

 

Morning times:

PHP:

Pos  Driver                 Team                    Time       Gap
 1.  Valtteri Bottas        Williams-Renault        1m29.179s
 2.  Max Chilton            Marussia-Cosworth       1m38.596s  + 5.122s
 3.  Ma Qing Hua            HRT-Cosworth            1m39.462s  + 8.026s

Bottas did 50 laps, Quin Hua did 55 and Chilton got in ?

 

On the face of it, he would appear to tick the same boxes…

 

Valtteri Bottas ends first day of young driver testing at Silverstone on top

PHP:

Pos  Driver              Team                   Time     
 1.  Valtteri Bottas     Williams-Renault       1m31.436s
 2.  Max Chilton         Marussia-Cosworth      1m36.558s + 5.122s
 3.  Rio Haryanto        Marussia-Cosworth      1m37.404s + 5.968s
 4.  Ma Qing Hua         HRT-Cosworth           1m37.829s + 6.393s


Laps
1. Bottas 120 Laps
2. Chilton 34 Laps
3. Ma Qing Hua 82 Laps
4. Haryanto 19 Laps

 

The fact that it is these three teams who chose to use this test rather than the later Abu Dhabi test is in itself interesting.

I wonder if they have been taking advantage of the track time? Very interesting to see also that the HRT and Marussia are probably equivalent in pace, if we assume Haryanto and Hua are roughly equivalent in terms of ability, and that Bottas' time wasn't that far off my pole guess for the GP! Looks pretty conclusive that Bottas will be in that Williams by the end of the year.

 

Does he bring financial backing though? Both Senna B and Maldo come with deep pockets, so you'd assume they would be safe.

 

By F1 standards I get the impression that Bottas is pretty skint. If Williams can secure Bottas some extra backing I hope to see him racing very soon.

 

Todays Abu Dhabi times:

HTML:

Pos  Driver                  Team                Time                Laps
 1.  Kevin Magnussen         McLaren-Mercedes    1m42.651s            40
 2.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Red Bull-Renault    1m42.717s  + 0.066s  79
 3.  Gary Paffett            McLaren-Mercedes    1m43.407s  + 0.756s  44
 4.  Robin Frijns            Sauber-Ferrari      1m43.775s  + 1.124s  78
 5.  Nicolas Prost           Lotus-Renault       1m44.194s  + 1.543s  55
 6.  Luiz Razia              Toro Rosso-Ferrari  1m44.691s  + 2.040s  67
 7.  Giedo van der Garde     Caterham-Renault    1m45.936s  + 3.285s  57

 

Not particularly impressive from Prost... and van der Garde has not impressed me in any of his appearances, but wow - that Caterham is so far off the pace it's not funny.

 

I think by next year Caterham should have caught up the mid field. Or at least more people will stop accepting the new team card. With the stable regs and the Renault engine they really should be making strides towards the Toro Rosso.

I don't know what runs they were on but Magnussen beating Paffett by 0.75s can't be good for Paffett's future....

 

Not a bad time from Magnussen just 1.2 seconds off pole

 

Does anyone know what compound those times were set on? If the time's by Magnussen and Felix da Costa were done on the Mediums, then thats none too shabby for example Hamilton managed a 1:41.497 whilst Vettel posted 1:42.160 in Q1

 

I was going to say about Magnussen, pretty impressive stuff from him. In fairness we all know that Mclaren use Paffett for data and feedback...

 

Rubbered in track after the race, a lot of time could of been added. If anything it shows how much faster a junior has to go against a world champion F1 driver.

 

I remember (was is last year?) that some of the young drivers were out qualifying their respective teams drivers. But regardless of that Magnussen put in a good drive, surprised me a bit tbh.

 

Yes Ricciardo, was something like 0.8 faster than pole and people started to go crazy...