Last year’s GP3 Series runner-up Nikita Mazepin will make his public debut for Mercedes during this week’s post-race Formula 1 test in Spain.
Formula 1 has stayed on at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for two days of post-race testing, which will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday at the venue.
Under Formula 1 regulations teams are obliged to run young drivers for 50 per cent of the four in-season test days that take place each season.
Young drivers officially count as those who have competed in two or fewer grands prix, and in Bahrain Mercedes was able to draft in George Russell for one of those test days.
It left the team needing a different youngster – with Williams racer Russell no longer applicable – for one of the two days this week in Spain.
Mazepin’s 2019 programme also involves private running in a 2017-spec Mercedes, though he is not part of its young driver programme.
The Russian youngster will get behind the wheel of the 2019 W10 for the first time on Wednesday.
Mazepin has previously carried out substantial testing for Force India, the team which the Uralkali organisation closely affiliated with his father attempted to buy when it entered administration last year.
Mazepin this year stepped up from GP3 to Formula 2, remaining with ART Grand Prix, but has taken just one points finish from six starts and holds a low-key 16th in the championship.
Several of Mazepin’s Formula 2 title rivals will also be in action during the test, with points leader Nicholas Latifi to drive for Williams, as part of his reserve duties, while Ferrari-backed Callum Ilott will receive his maiden F1 outing for Alfa Romeo. Jack Aitken, fourth in the standings, will test for Renault.
Mick Schumacher, on whom much attention was placed in Bahrain, will not be driving, with Ferrari calling up Academy graduate and simulator driver Antonio Fuoco for his first test since 2016.
