Categories: FeatureFeatures

Final test driver line-ups

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Thursday marks the start of the final pre-season test of 2015, with just four days of track time remaining before the teams head to Melbourne.

The third test will see numerous changes to the 2015 cars as the teams bring upgrades to try and add performance having spent the first two tests working on reliability and set-up changes. Aero runs will be followed by race simulations and perhaps a low fuel lap or two as teams try to gauge where they sit in the competitive order.

McLaren remains the team most in need of mileage, with power unit issues and a crash for Fernando Alonso heavily limiting its running during the second test. Alonso has been ruled out after the crash, with Kevin Magnussen set to fill in for him. The team will hope to have found a temporary fix for its MGU-K problems, with Honda motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai saying a permanent replacement should be ready by Australia.

Mercedes showed signs of its true potential during the second test, with Nico Rosberg's medium tyre lap second only to a supersoft run from Romain Grosjean as Lotus ended three of the four days on top.

The new Force India VJM08 is scheduled to run at some stage over the next four days, but the team has yet to confirm when it will arrive in Barcelona - if at all - and who will be driving on which day after Pascal Wehrlein completed two days in last year's car during the second test.

The full driver line-ups for each of the four days is as follows:

Team	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Mercedes	L. Hamilton	N. Rosberg	L. Hamilton	N. Rosberg
Red Bull	D. Kvyat	D. Kvyat	D. Ricciardo	D. Ricciardo
Williams	F.Massa	V. Bottas	F.Massa	V. Bottas
Ferrari	K. Räikkönen	S. Vettel	K. Räikkönen	S. Vettel
McLaren	J.Button	J.Button	K.Magnussen	J.Button
Force India	Not running	N. Hulkenberg (PM)	N.Hulkenberg	S. Perez
Toro Rosso	C. Sainz	M. Verstappen	C. Sainz	M. Verstappen
Lotus	R. Grosjean	P. Maldonado	R. Grosjean	P. Maldonado
Sauber	M. Ericsson	F. Nasr	M. Ericsson	F. Nasr

Feature - F1 testing: The tip of the iceberg

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.