Youth Testing at Silverstone: Lotus skips Räikkönen

He won't be there after all. Kimi Räikkönen will not participate in the Silverstone Youth Tests, which began this Wednesday morning, even though he was announced to drive this Friday. To justify this last minute change, Lotus explained that in view of the latest elements communicated by the FIA, the 2007 world champion would be “under-exploited”.

“After the clarification given regarding the scope of the tests that could be carried out by the titular pilots, it is obvious that Kimi (Räikkönen) would be underutilized and that the best way forward is to use one of our test pilots to continue their work with the E21?, indicates a press release from the British team. Nicholas Cheers is therefore the big winner of the operation, since he will be able to get back behind the wheel all day Friday, although he was only supposed to drive this Wednesday.

“When the details of what racing drivers were allowed to do (during these Youth tests, Editor’s note) became apparent, we could only have conducted a very limited program with Kimi”, explains Alan Permane, director of track operations at Lotus. “ If we ran it here it would have compromised the other development work we want to do here with the car. By making Nico ride again (Prost) "We will be able to build on the work already done and hopefully be in the best possible position to develop the E21 for Budapest, which also includes the necessary tire testing for Pirelli."

With this new absence, it is a new world champion who will not be present at Silverstone, since Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are not making the trip to Great Britain either.