Young Drivers Test Program in Abu Dhabi
The tests for young drivers, or Rookies Test, will take place this year in Abu Dhabi from November 15 to 17. Teams can run drivers with little experience in Formula 1 - less than three Grand Prix races contested - or none at all. The 12 teams on the grid have announced their lineup of drivers for several weeks now, and here is the summary.
Many Formula 1 teams have test and reserve drivers who are young drivers racing in other categories. It’s common for them to have the opportunity to test their partner team’s F1 car. This will be the case this year notably for Jean-Eric Vergne with Red Bull Racing, Jules Bianchi at Ferrari, Sam Bird at Mercedes GP, Gary Paffett at McLaren, as well as Esteban Gutierrez at Sauber and Valterri Bottas at Williams.
Other drivers participate in these tests thanks to a gain, such as Mirko Bortolotti who, thanks to his F2 championship title, earned a test day with Williams, or thanks to their wallet, such as Fabio Leimer who will drive with Sauber F1 or Charles Pic who will drive with Marussia Virgin.
Several drivers will make their grand debut in a Formula 1 car, notably Kevin Korjus with Lotus Renault, Johnny Ceccoto Jr with Force India, Fabio Leimer with Sauber F1, and Charles Pic with Virgin.
These three test days will be available to follow live on MotorsInside, with regular updates on the times of the different drivers throughout the three days.
EDIT: Note that Jan Charouz and Nathanael Berthon have been added to the program by the HRT team. Both men raced in the World Series and GP2 this season. Charouz will be the only driver along with Wickens to drive for two teams during these three days of testing – LRGP and HRT for Charouz and LRGP and Virgin for Wickens.
Summary table of the test program for young drivers
| Tuesday 15 | Wednesday 16 | Thursday 17 | |
| Red Bull Racing | Jean-Eric Vergne | Jean-Eric Vergne | Jean-Eric Vergne |
| McLaren Mercedes | Oliver Turvey | Oliver Turvey Gary Paffett |
Gary Paffett |
| Scuderia Ferrari | Jules Bianchi | Jules Bianchi | Jules Bianchi |
| Mercedes GP | Sam Bird | Sam Bird | Sam Bird |
| Lotus Renault GP | Robert Wickens | Kevin Korjus | Jan Charouz |
| Sahara Force India | Max Chilton | Johnny Cecotto Jr | Max Chilton |
| Scuderia Toro Rosso | Stefano Coletti | Kevin Ceccon | Stefano Coletti Kevin Ceccon |
| Sauber F1 Team | Fabio Leimer | Esteban Gutierrez | Esteban Gutierrez |
| Williams F1 Team | Valterri Bottas | Valterri Bottas | Mirko Bortolotti |
| Team Lotus | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Luiz Razia | Alexander Rossi |
| Marussia Virgin Racing | Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Charles Pic |
Charles Pic | Robert Wickens |
| HRT F1 Team | Dani Clos | Jan Charouz Nathanel Berthon |
Nathanel Berthon |
