Formula 1’s final day of track racing takes place at Yas Marina tomorrow, with teams evaluating next year’s tires and giving young drivers another chance to test.
All 10 teams will take part in last weekend’s race day at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. They each run two cars, one driven by an inexperienced driver who has competed in no more than two Grands Prix.
Many teams take the opportunity to give their new drivers a run in their cars. Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly have been licensed to drive for Aston Martin and Alpine respectively after leaving their previous teams. The same is true for the AlphaTauri race, with former Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri, who will make his F1 debut with McLaren next year, and Nick de Vries stepping down from his reserve role at Mercedes next year.
Nico Hulkenberg will make his debut for Haas as he prepares to return to a full-time F1 seat for the first time since 2019. Williams will have 2023 debutant Logan Sarge in one of their cars.
Mercedes junior Frédéric Vesti will make his first race in an F1 car tomorrow, while other teams will return to drivers they have brought back in practice this year.
Lewis Hamilton is expected to drive the other Mercedes, although he joked that he was “pulling a disease” as he was too short to drive this year’s W13 following his retirement from Sunday’s race. World champion Max Verstappen is expected to race for Red Bull when the team gets Pirelli’s new tires for 2023.
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“It’s important to read the first one and make sure we have a basic understanding before we go into the next season,” Vertappen said. “Every track is different, so it’s always good to run these tires, but you learn a lot about them throughout the season.”
One key change to next year’s tires is the addition of a new compound, as Pirelli looks to improve its hard tire options. This year, the hardest rubber compound in use, C1, will be rebranded C0, and a new C1 is on offer. This brings the total number of slipper tire compounds available for any race to six, designated C0 (hardest) to C5 (softest).
F1 post-season test driver line-up
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