Red Bull Racing has become the final team to confirm its testing plans for Barcelona next week, with the team electing not to join Ferrari, Mercedes and Williams in running on the final four days of the test.
The final preseason test in Barcelona has been expanded into a five-day session after Mercedes GP elected to switch its program, running Wednesday to Saturday instead of Tuesday until Friday. There had been some discussion between teams about them all running on those days, but only Ferrari and Williams have elected to go down the Mercedes route.
Other squads were adamant they wanted to stick to the original plan, and Red Bull Racing has spent this week evaluating whether it, too, would keep to the Tuesday-Friday schedule. The team had to weigh up whether it would benefit from holding back its running so it mirrored main rival Ferrari's testing program, or ran early to gain an extra day's preparation time before freight is shipped to Australia. Red Bull Racing has now decided to run from Tuesday to Friday – meaning that Ferrari, Mercedes and Williams will run alone on Saturday.
As well as being the final preseason test, Barcelona is set to mark the first time that all the 2011 cars will run at the same time, as HRT is hoping to unveil its new F111.