Lewis Hamilton will have driven every twist and turn of the new Abu Dhabi circuit long before the season-ending race makes its debut on the Formula One calendar in November. Britains world champion will not even have to leave McLarens Woking headquarters to do it,either. With actual testing banned from next week until the end of December as part of cost-cutting measures, leading drivers will be lapping virtual racetracks more than ever this year. I think well be spending more time here in the simulator, said Hamiltons Finnish team mate Heikki Kovalainen. Ill probably have sore eyes after a few days from looking at the screen, he added. The Williams teams Nico Rosberg observed wryly last month that driving a Formula One car on a real racetrack now constituted the smallest part of his job description. We have two little practice sessions on Friday,a very small one on Saturday,a couple of laps in qualifying and then the race. Its not really great, said the German. More woes If the race drivers are complaining,then pity the teams official test drivers. BMW-Saubers Austrian reserve Christian Klien winced when asked what exactly he did as a test driver now that in-season testing was banned. I think its getting paid and having holidays, he said. This year I am in the kitchen preparing the food for these two, he joked,gesturing at Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica. Apart from Hamilton and Kovalainen,the Mercedes-powered team can count on Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa and Britains Gary Paffett as testers. I think one of the questions that would be on everybodys lips is,when you are not testing between the first and the last race how come weve got four drivers? said team chairman Ron Dennis in January. But we are fully committed to exploring every possibility as regards how we develop the car and of course we need a reserve driver,thats Pedro,and we need a lot of capacity for our simulator. You really have to have drivers with all the same attributes that are expected of a driver when he actually tests the car on the circuit.
