It’s been a couple of months since Pirelli was announced as the sole tyre supplier for Formula One. As such they’ve extracted Nick Heidfeld from MercedesGP, put him in a Toyota TF109 and started testing in earnest prior to the 2011 season.
Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said, “We’re delighted to welcome Nick into the Pirelli family, and we’re confident that he’ll do a great job for us.
“The role of test driver is a crucial one, so we were looking for a driver who had plenty of recent Formula One experience, the speed to push our new tyres as hard as possible, and the consistency to provide reliable simulations, as well as the analytical skills to relay information accurately to our engineers. Nick fits the bill in every respect and we’re very pleased to have secured his services and obviously thankful to Mercedes GP Petronas for agreeing to release Nick from his contract.”
Hembrey went on to explain the 2009 Toyota was chosen so as to avoid any conflicts of interest with any current cars, “The Toyota was the perfect solution, as it is a contemporary racing machine with proven speed and reliability but without links to any of the manufacturers currently competing in Formula One.”
The new Pirelli deal will run for three years. F1 teams will get their first chance to try the new rubber at the short post-season test session following the final Grand Prix for the year to be held at Abu Dhabi on 14 November.
[Source: Formula1.com]
5 replies on “Pirelli commences F1 testing for 2011”
I can just see it now. F1 teams will be lining up to sign Nick for next year! The advantage he posesses will be tremendous!
He’ll finish but off the podium?
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la llantas lisas parecen recauchadas,lo son?
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