• Young Driver Test - Day 1

More value running young drivers - Di Resta

Paul di Resta was second quickest on the opening day of the test © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Paul di Resta

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Paul di Resta says teams will get more value out of running young drivers during the Young Driver Test this week.

With race drivers permitted to take part for a maximum of one day solely carrying out tyre tests for Pirelli, both di Resta and Marussia's Max Chilton had half a day driving at Silverstone. However, di Resta said after his running that his time in the car was "very restricting" and believes teams able to run young drivers throughout will benefit.

"Pirelli have got a big driving force on how we plan our programs," di Resta said. "We're here to aid them and making sure they're safe going forward and making sure they're sufficient enough. It's very restricting for a race driver what the team can do, so we're learning what we can but at the same point more learning for the future for Formula One. In terms of reference it's probably better that we're in the car because we had a race here not long ago and we know where the car's limits are and know what the differences are.

"There's value every time you run a Formula One car but I think there's more value when they run the young drivers. I think what they can't get with the young drivers is getting the car on the limit and getting the tyre wear and getting the feeling of where the car was before to get back to basics. I think that's the feeling that we achieved with the program that we had that Pirelli wanted us to set out; they set it and we did it."

Asked about the revised Pirelli tyres he was testing, di Resta said he hadn't noticed any major issues but was unsure how Force India would fare relative to its rivals.

"At the end of the day they're very close to where the tyres were last year. The compounds are the same and I think they're working well. I think given the heat they're obviously getting put through their paces today but at the same time you don't know what other people are doing because all the other teams mainly ran young drivers so they could obviously be far wider on what programs they could run."

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