Jack Aitken, Renault, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

Full driver line-up for Barcelona in-season test confirmed

2018 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken are among the new names who will be participating in this week’s F1 test at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Dennis, Red Bull’s simulator driver, will have his first run for the team in the RB14 on Wednesday. Aitken, who won Sunday’s F2 race at the track, will make his official test debut for Renault.

Nicholas Latifi will have his first run in the Force India. The former Mercedes and Renault tester was originally scheduled to drive for them in pre-season testing but was forced to miss out on the opportunity due to illness.

Other test drivers in action include Toro Rosso’s Sean Gelael and Williams’ Oliver Rowland. Antonio Giovinazzi will run on both days of the test, driving for Sauber and Ferrari.

Force India and McLaren will run second cars at the test to conduct Pirelli tyre evaluation. McLaren’s junior driver Lando Norris will also run on both days.

TeamTuesday 15thWednesday 16th
MercedesLewis HamiltonValtteri Bottas
FerrariSebastian VettelAntonio Giovinazzi
Red BullMax VerstappenJake Dennis
Force IndiaNicholas LatifiNikita Mazepin
Force India (Pirelli test)George RussellNicholas Latifi
WilliamsOliver RowlandRobert Kubica
RenaultCarlos Sainz JnrJack Aitken
Toro RossoSean GelaelPierre Gasly
HaasRomain GrosjeanKevin Magnussen
McLarenStoffel VandoorneLando Norris
McLaren (Pirelli test)Lando Norris/Oliver TurveyStoffel Vandoorne
SauberAntonio GiovinazziCharles Leclerc

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Don't miss anything new from RaceFans

Follow RaceFans on social media:

2018 F1 season

Browse all 2018 F1 season articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

18 comments on “Full driver line-up for Barcelona in-season test confirmed”

  1. Sean Geleal and Gasly for STR.

    Brendon’s days could be numbered.
    He hasn’t been too good; but i think he is still trying very hard to adapt. Hope he does well in Monaco.

    1. At the same time though, who do they bring in instead? Because Gelael is their test driver, and he’s much worse than Hartley. And none of the other RB juniors are in any way ready for F1. Got the feeling Hartley is just a seat filler with good racing experience who’ll do a decent job until they get a new Verstappen.

      1. Jake Dennis i guess

    2. Gaelel won’t get the STR seat, they’ve looked at him many times and he has been very poor. Even if they decide Hartley doesn’t quite have enough in him to progress, if they feel they absolutely can’t go on with him (and i doubt they’re at that stage yet), it’s a lot more likely they’ll take another driver on loan for half a season, Wehrlein is rumoured but i wouldn’t be at all shocked if Giovinazzi stepped in, or even Kubica, Perhaps even an outside chance of Di Resta?

      I know the Red Bull bosses don’t really want to take another teams young driver but the simple fact is, the Red Bull Junior programmes ran dry at the moment and they don’t have anyone really waiting in the wings that would be having their route to F1 blocked for the foreseeable future. Their only option is to outsource a driver if they were to replace Hartley.

  2. Fiat keep pushing Giovinazzi, but with all due respect, I don’t think he’d really shown much promise. Maybe they should utilize Kvyat more instead…possibly Haas could use him if Grosjean keeps crashing.

    1. @gpfacts have you ever seen a minute or two of his GP2 campaign? He was masterclass, Leclerc-style.

      1. @alfa145 that’s a bit of a stretch though, isn’t it? Gasly was better throughout the year, but was more unlucky, which is why it got a bit close in the end. But with Leclerc it wasn’t even close, he demolished the others and was even very unlucky at times (Monaco springs to mind).

        Giovinazzi wasn’t all that convincing in F3, and his outings in F1 last year were mixed. So yeah I also hold some reservations on him.

    2. Look at how Leclerc developed. He didn’t do a great job in the first 3 races (overdriving the car) and also didn’t do anything special in his FP-appearances for Haas and Sauber in ’16 and ’17. And now he is getting a lot of praise for his peformances.

      Giovinazzi has shown his talent in GP2 by almost winning the title as a rookie. He was as fast, if not a tiny bit faster than his teammate Pierre Gasly, who is doing a good job at Toro Rosso.

      Don’t judge a book by its cover.

      1. @srga91 Completely agree, when we have second rate drivers such as Stroll and Sirotkin on the grid, Giovinazzi is better than both and more than deserves a shot in F1, his GP2 campaign was superb. I’d like to see Grosjean dropped for Leclerc and Giovinazzi in at Sauber!

  3. Why is STR giving a test to Gelael? He’s not particularly promising, and they’re not exactly cash-strapped, unless Mateschitz has been tightening the purse strings.

    1. he bring alot of money for a joy ride

    2. @wsrgo KFC Indonesian Franchise money!

  4. Is McLaren taking advantage to have a mano a mano between Vandoorne and Lorris?

    While Vandoorne has been consistent, he has been consistently 2tenths behind Alonso and McLaren might be tempted to bring some new prospect as they did in the past.

    Still hope that Vandoorne will evolve and stay at McLaren… Kind of missing the guy who won dominantly in gp2

    1. Has Vandoorne ever had a level playing field vs Alonso? Alonso”s car is often quite different than Vandoorne’s in terms of upgrades (definitely last season, not sure on this season so far, having trouble finding articles covering this) and Vandoorne has had to give Alonso a tow as well, makes me think Vandoorne is treated as the #2 (no pun intended). Vandoorne is an amazing talent (great drives in GP2, breaking quite a few records that Hamilton set iirc and Superformula he was immediately a championship contender) I don’t think he could be this far off Alonso’s pace, maybe McLaren don’t want a repeat of Hamilton vs Alonso, or Alonso has clear #1 stuff written in to his contract so he doesn’t get another Hamilton.

    2. Neil (@neilosjames)
      15th May 2018, 0:15

      I think at least part of Vandoorne’s problem is that McLaren has pretty much turned into Team Alonso. Can’t blame them because Alonso is still one of the very, very best drivers and he gets results out of the car that no one else could… but it can’t be a good environment to develop in.

      And he’s definitely the most ‘Number Two’ driver, looking at the way he has to move aside on the rare occasions he finds himself ahead of Alonso.

      1. Well, Hamilton was also treated as a number 2 for the first few races until Canada, but he used that time to demonstrate just how good he is and left McLaren no choice but to give him equal status with Alonso. Vandoorne needs to do the same or he will find himself without a drive soon. No more excuses he has had long enough and has just been utterly underwhelming especially given he was hyped to be even better than Hamilton.

        1. @blackmamba
          The big difference back then was McLaren had a good car back then and both cars were equal, with the absolute mess of a car they have now, it seems they don’t have the same upgrades all the time. I don’t buy that Vandoorne finally reaches F1 and has no pace, when everything he’s ever sat in, he is fast…. makes no sense.

  5. RedBull should give a another chance to both their ex-young drivers Albon and Sette Camara instead of Jake Deniss and Gelael.

Comments are closed.