Let's start once again. From tomorrow, with the drivers' press conference, the race week of the Dutch GP officially begins. Summer break is over and everyone is back at attention. There will be no shortage of surprises and one of these comes from Ferrari: Frederic Vasseur indeed announced that Robert Shwartzman will take Carlos Sainz's place in FP1 of the Dutch GP. The Scuderia decides to use the first slot - out of the two mandatory ones - to be used immediately after the summer break to allow a rookie driver to compete in his first FP1 of the season.
Vasseur announces: “Shwartzman replacing Sainz in FP1 in Holland”
Although the teams don't like the rule, they find each other in an unpleasant situation, Vasseur announced that in addition to the Dutch GP, the next FP1 in which we will see in action Shwartzman will be in the last stage of the world championship, in Abu Dhabi"Robert will tour Zandvoort with Carlos' car and Abu Dhabi with Charles' car. We prefer it that way – continued Vasseur, based on what Motorsport.com reports – because we believe it is correct that our drivers involved in Formula 2 (Arthur Leclerc and Oliver Bearman) remain focused on their championship. We will try to give them the opportunity to test with a 2021 car before the end of the season".
“It was the drivers' choice”
So make room for Shwartzman who will debut on the SF-23 this weekend. A choice that was a bit surprising, especially considering the characteristics of the Zandvoort track but which Vasseur explained thus"It was a choice of the starting drivers. It's not easy to identify the best weekend, you can't give up FP1 on tracks like Singapore, Japan or Las Vegas, or even where there are Sprint races, such as the stages in Austin or Qatar. So in the end there weren't many options".
SOURCE: Motorsport.com
