Ferrari and Mercedes set to warm up ahead of the season-opener
Ferrari and Mercedes will return to the racing tracks before the delayed and curtailed 2020 F1 season gets underway with the Austrian Grand Prix on July 5.
Formula 1 teams and drivers have been absent from the racing tracks since the end of the pre-season testing. The winter testing ended at Barcelona on 28 February, meaning that drivers have not been behind the wheel of a F1 car for more than three months while they last completed a grand prix in Abu Dhabi on the 1st of December in 2019.
Mercedes has revealed in a twitter post that it would be back on track next week to warm up ahead of the first round of the 2020 F1 season. The Brackley-based team will conquer the Silverstone cirucit where Valtteri Bottas will drive on Tuesday before Lewis Hamilton takes over the car on Wednesday.
The team has confirmed that it intends to practice „protocols ahead of returning to racing in Austria next month”.
As Formula One's Sporting Regulations prevent teams from using actual or last year’s cars, Mercedes will conduct the test sessions with its 2018 machine, the W09.
It is believed that Ferrari also intends to carry out a two-day test session with Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel to give its drivers the chance of getting up to speed before the season-opener in Austria.
