Report: Ferrari changed test plans for Austria

Jun.17 - Ferrari reportedly altered its plans for the forthcoming post-Austrian grand prix test.

With only two in-season tests taking place in 2015, the Maranello team was criticised by Italian media last month when it revealed the driver lineup for Barcelona.

"It is really difficult to understand why Ferrari is not fully exploiting this chance to test," La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote at the time.

Indeed, while rival teams all fielded a race driver at the post-Spanish grand prix test, Ferrari ran junior driver Raffaele Marciello alongside reserve Esteban Gutierrez.

And now, Ferrari has announced that Gutierrez, linked with several Mexican team sponsors, will return to the cockpit in Austria next week, this time joined by teenage GP3 junior Antonio Fuoco.

But Finland's Turun Sanomat claims that Kimi Raikkonen had initially been scheduled to test at the Red Bull Ring.

That plan, however, was before Gutierrez and Marciello lined up in Barcelona.

It is suggested the original plan was for Sebastian Vettel to test in Spain, before Raikkonen gets the Red Bull Ring outing.

Had Raikkonen run as originally scheduled in Austria, however, it would have tipped the testing tally in his favour, after both the Finn and teammate Vettel got six days apiece in the winter.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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