McLaren Will Take Thursday Off in Barcelona

McLaren Mercedes will apparently remain in Barcelona for one more day this week, extending their stay at the Spanish track until Saturday evening. However, that isn't to mean the British team will benefit from an extra day of track time, but it will split its testing schedule for this last meeting of the off-season into two 2-day tests.

Consequently, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will hit the Circuit de Catalunya at the wheel of their MP4-26 today and tomorrow, after which the team will take Thursday off. Obviously, the two racers will return to testing in the next couple of days, namely Friday and Saturday.

The order in which the two world champions will drive the 2011-spec challenger will be as followed:

Jenson Button – Tuesday/Friday
Lewis Hamilton – Wednesday/Saturday

The team is yet to explain their choice in testing schedule this week, as their official standpoint is that its resources would be better spread over a 5-day programme.

As far as we know, this is the only important change in terms of testing programmes operated by any of the 12 teams present in Barcelona this week. As compared to McLaren, Ferrari have began their running on the Spanish track a day earlier than initially scheduled, as Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa took the improved 150 Italia to the track for “filming purposes” on Monday.

In related news, Hispania Racing F1 Team is yet to debut their 2011-spec single-seater this off-season, with some media reports suggesting that the most likely date for that to happen will be on Thursday. Until then, race driver Narain Karthikeyan will drive the 2010-spec HRT racer.