Is left over one last procedure to complete, It will be formal and on Wednesday the 2021 season will be definitively over for everyone. Well it is true that the World Cup already has its new champion, Max Verstappen, and that there will no longer be points at stake, but there will be a lot of information that may be definitive to add them from a new year prepared for the revolution. F1 faces a rule change and also, to a new 18-inch Pirelli tire which will roll on the track in Abu Dhabi for the next two days. It will be a test focused especially for young pilots, but it will also feature some officials among which the presence of the current champion stands out, Carlos Sainz or Fernando Alonso.
These tests will be a combination of two different programs, to be carried out in parallel. During the two days that will open the Yas Marina runway (on a split day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.), on the asphalt the usual cars will be contemplated with some modifications carried out especially, to simulate the load that the tires will bear in the prototypes of the next season. The new Pirelli tires will continue to feature five different compounds (C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5) and Williams will be the only absence in these tests, it has not prepared a car suitable for the circumstances.
The rest of the teams have already made their plans. Alpine will begin work on ‘The Plan’ with Ocon on Tuesday, to raise Fernando to the A521 on the second day. The Asturian will share track with Carlos Sainz, as Ferrari decided to use the opening day to test with Leclerc and Antonio Fuoco (the objective is to evaluate the correlations between the track and the simulator together with the reference driver in Maranello in that program). The champion Verstappen will try his luck on the first day and a Hamilton, who has already taken a vacation, will not be found again on the track.
Russell to officially debut with Mercedes and he will be the only representative of Brackley’s in tests, where they will also wear their new colors Bottas (Tuesday) and Zhou (Wednesday) in the Alfa Romeo garage. As for the rest of the teams, they will all try their 2021 line-up except for a Haas, to be driven by Pietro Fittipaldi the last day due to the withdrawal of Mazepin due to coronavirus.
