Bahrain – George Russell will be at the wheel of Mercedes’ W10 on Wednesday, as he stays on to fulfil their ‘young driver’ obligation.
Bahrain’s Sakhir International Circuit plays host to a two day in-season test this week, the first of two such tests this year. All the teams have stayed out in Bahrain to take part.
There is an obligation on all the teams to run a ‘young driver’ during two of the four in-season test days this year, a young driver being defined as one who has competed in two Grands Prix or less. The timing of the test has thus worked out very well for some teams, who are thus able to use their race drivers and still conform to that rule.
Mercedes are one of the teams to benefit from this, as they can run George Russell, despite him being a fulltime racing driver with Williams,a Mercedes customer team. Russell is backed by the Mercedes motorsport program. He will drive for Williams on Tuesday, sharing duties with Robert Kubica, before hopping into the Mercedes for Wednesday. Nicholas Latifi will take over the Williams for that day as their young driver.
McLaren are another team to benefit from the timing of the test, as they can run Lando Norris during testing. He’ll be sharing with Carlos Sainz on Tuesday, and running the full day by himself on Wednesday.
Stay tuned for a full driver line-up for this week’s test, which also sees Fernando Alonso on track!
