De Vries fastest as post-season testing begins in Abu Dhabi

Formula E world champion Nyck de Vries set the fastest time during the young driver test in Abu Dhabi, driving Mercedes’ 2021 car.

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De Vries led Formula 2 driver Liam Lawson, in the 2021 AlphaTauri car, by more than a second. Oscar Piastri, driving for Alpine and Patricio O’Ward, for McLaren, were both within a tenth of Lawson’s time.

Two separate tests took place simultaneously: One for existing Formula 1 drivers to test next year’s 18-inch Pirelli tyres using mule cars and one for young drivers to get an opportunity in the 2021 F1 machines still fitted with this year’s rubber. One team, Williams, opted not to run a mule car – only test and development driver Logan Sargeant going out in a 2021 car to get his young driver mileage opportunity.

Valtteri Bottas, still contracted to Mercedes until 2022, was permitted to run the tyre test for Alfa Romeo. Likewise, George Russell was released by Williams to drive both days of the Pirelli tyre test for Mercedes.

There was one red flag period during the morning running, caused by Daniel Ricciardo stopping out on track in the McLaren mule car. He rejoined the test once it resumed and ended up quickest of the drivers running 18-inch tyres.

Logan Sargeant called a second red flag period during the second half of testing, his car stopping on track. The only significant collision was Juri Vips, who spun into a barrier during his running in the 2021 Red Bull car.

Yuki Tsunoda completed the most laps, covering 146 tours – two-and-a-half race distances – in the AlphaTauri tyre test car.

This article will be updated

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Pos.	Car number	Driver	Team	Best time	Gap	Laps
1	21	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes	1’23.194		77
2	40	Liam Lawson	AlphaTauri	1’24.517	1.323	131
3	36	Oscar Piastri	Alpine	1’24.523	1.329	125
4	28	Pato O’Ward	McLaren	1’24.607	1.413	92
5	24	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	1’25.142	1.948	119
6	25	Juri Vips	Red Bull	1’25.198	2.004	97
7	34	Nick Yelloly	Aston Martin	1’25.333	2.139	118
8	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	1’26.252	3.058	95
9	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1’26.579	3.385	143
10	39	Robert Shwartzman	Ferrari	1’26.694	3.500	73
11	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’26.989	3.795	87
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	1’27.183	3.989	127
13	38	Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari	1’27.324	4.130	146
14	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1’27.348	4.154	131
15	45	Logan Sargeant	Williams	1’27.476	4.282	92
16	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1’27.553	4.359	128
17	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1’28.013	4.819	124
18	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1’28.062	4.868	132
19	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas	1’28.499	5.305	100

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20 comments on “De Vries fastest as post-season testing begins in Abu Dhabi”

Matthijs (@matthijs)
14th December 2021, 15:29

Last week indycar, now F1: not a dull week for De Vries
Marty
14th December 2021, 15:58

He should be in F1.. Sadly Zhou brought 30 million. And Red Bull Thailand bought Albon that Williams seat….
Guy
14th December 2021, 17:02

The current F1 drivers are overrated… Look at all those newbies already faster than them 😉😉
JohnNik (@johnnik)
14th December 2021, 17:24

Nice dig at Bottas sending De Vries out for 77 laps.
Alberto
14th December 2021, 19:33

He will be announced as Russell’s partner before Christmas, you heard it here first! :)
baasbas
14th December 2021, 20:33

Did Verstappen have to pass a breathalyzer test before getting in the car?
1. Tim
  15th December 2021, 5:38
  
  If there were such tests in Formula 1, Kimi would retire much earlier.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th December 2021, 21:50

Mercedes fastest? Strange, usually it’s the slowest car, as the 8 championships in a row prove!
1. GeeMac (@geemac)
  15th December 2021, 8:27
  
  Its a young driver and a Pirelli tyre test. Vips is the young driver and Verstappen is doing the Pirelli test.
  
  @esploratore1
  1. GeeMac (@geemac)
    15th December 2021, 8:27
    
    Argh…replied to the wrong post sorry.
RomTrain (@romtrain)
14th December 2021, 22:41

Verstappen in his Red Bull in a young driver test? Looks strange to me.
1. Mike
  14th December 2021, 23:00
  
  He was probably in a mule car. All the young drivers are in the 2021 cars. The normal drivers in mule cars.
2. MacLeod (@macleod)
  15th December 2021, 8:28
  
  There are also 18″ test on a mule car which Max did while Juri did the young drivers test. (But Max is young enough to do those too :) )
stefano (@alfa145)
14th December 2021, 23:33

honestly surprised at Verstappen being asked to do this so early
Bulgarian (@bulgarian)
14th December 2021, 23:36

Is Michael Masi in charge of everything also during tests?
If so, then he wasted a chance to order any (All!) drivers get back to their garages and let just Max Verstappen race! As we now know all other drivers are IRRELEVANT for Michael Massi.
1. Danny (@dnny)
  15th December 2021, 16:44
  
  @bulgarian, let it go.
  
  Oer the course of the season it swings both ways. All in all I think Verstappen is a worthy champion for the spectacular season we have just witnessed.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
15th December 2021, 1:43

Interestingly the young drivers have the xp on the tyre and the veterans in the car.
1. Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
  15th December 2021, 1:47
  
  To have the young drivers on the old tyres is a waste of an opportunity, good to benchmark them with the dataset but bad to evaluate the tyre since some of the young drivers already race 18 inch tyres.
Tornado (@tornado)
15th December 2021, 20:18

Good to see Aston Martin do a decent number of laps for data gathering. Have been reluctant to push in this area in the past. And Yuki has less number of laps according to the table. Maybe not fully updated
1. Tornado (@tornado)
  15th December 2021, 20:20
  
  The profile page of Aston Martin also needs an update.