Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso are likely to go it alone and be the only teams to conduct their young driver test at Abu Dhabi later this year.
With F1 teams having the option of testing either at Silverstone after the British Grand Prix, or in Abu Dhabi in November, sources have revealed that it appears only the two Red Bull-owned squads want to wait until later in the year. Although the final details of the tests have not been sorted, and teams can still change their mind, Pirelli has revealed that it is making preparations for 10 teams to test at Silverstone.
Pirelli is involved because it has been asked to guarantee that the tires it supplies for both tests are to the exact same specification, so that there is not a technical advantage from running at one over the other.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli's motorsport director, said: "We have 12 partners and we have to go along with what the partners want. Ten of them would appear to want to go to Silverstone, and two of them to Abu Dhabi, so it means we will not be taking any of the new products to the young driver tests.
"We have found in the past the young driver test is of limited use, for a variety of reasons. The teams at the last young driver test were trying a lot of items for next season, and trying new drivers, so while it gave us indicative results, it was of overall very limited value."
As previously reported, the agreement between teams about the format for young driver testing means that those squads which want to test at Silverstone can decide to change their plans at the last-minute if the post-British Grand Prix week looks set to be hit by bad weather.
Pirelli has also confirmed that it will not try any experimental rubber for next week's Mugello in-season test.
"It will just be standard tires for the teams to do their work," said Hembery.