Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali agrees there should be some specific track testing for F1′s new 2011 tyre supplier.

FOTA technical chief Ross Brawn said in Turkey that despite the in-season testing ban, there should be some running exempted for the development of the new tyres in the “late summer and early winter”.

Mercedes reserve driver Nick Heidfeld recently put his hand up to do some tyre testing this year, as current supplier Bridgestone is set to be replaced by either Pirelli or Michelin for the 2011 season.

Domenicali agrees that tyre testing will be a priority.

“Yes, this is what we have to discuss with the tyre manufacturer as soon as we have decided and we know who will be the supplier for next year,” he said.

It is suggested that, due to the late appointment of a new supplier, tyre tests have become even more necessary, given the short development lead-time and the danger that cars and tyres will not be ideally optimised.

“Clearly we need to have some specific testing to make sure the tyres are sorted properly,” agreed Brawn.

“It may take a few iterations to get where we want to be and undoubtedly there will be a degree of conservatism at the beginning because we can’t afford to have any problems with compounds.

“But we’re all there to help the new tyre supplier and I think we’ve got a good chance of success,” he added.

(GMM)

Michael Schumacher led the way in the opening hour of Wednesday’s Jerez test as two red flag situations kept running to a minimum.

Overcast skies and a damp track greeted the drivers on the first morning of this week’s four-day Jerez test.

Felipe Massa was the first to venture out, followed by Fairuz Fauzy, who was given the honour of getting behind the wheel of the new Lotus T127 in its first official test.

Following a brief break after the installation laps, which were completed by all the teams excluding Virgin Racing within the first 20 minutes, Fauzy hit the track again to put in his first timed lap.

The Lotus test driver clocked a 1:46.652 in his brief two-lap run. However, the team had no complaints.

“Fairuz just did a couple of laps on a wet track with no problems, he’s in now for some adjustments,” Lotus reported on Twitter.

The Malaysian driver’s time, though, was over 16s off the lead time set by Michael Schumacher.

While his rivals were lapping in the 1:33s to start with, Schumacher’s first flying lap of the day was a 1:30.549.

It wasn’t a good start to the test for Lewis Hamilton and McLaren as the Brit brought out the red flags when he stopped out on track.

After a 16 minute hold-up the session was resumed only to be stopped four minutes later as Paul di Resta spun his Force India.

Schumacher therefore ended the opening hour in the P1 slot with Pedro de la Rosa 0.214s behind and Felipe Massa in third place.