Mercedes F1 hopeful to be handed Spa outing

Mercedes reserve Andrea Kimi Antonelli will again be put through his paces in an F1 car when he tackles the Spa-Francorchamps circuit after this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

It will be Antonelli's fifth TPC (Testing of Previous Car) outing after driving the 2021 W12 in Austria, and the 2022 W13 at Imola, Barcelona and Silverstone.

The 17-year-old will again run the W13 in Belgium as he continues to be evaluated by Mercedes ahead of an eventual promotion to a full-time race seat, either next season as a replacement for Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton, or in 2026.

Antonelli was openly honest after his maiden F2 feature race victory last weekend in Hungary when he said he was not yet ready for F1, due to him still learning F2 and making mistakes.

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has confirmed the TPC programme with Antonelli is at least going well as he continually builds up his knowledge, with a drive around Spa next on the agenda.

"It's difficult to find opportunities to run a TPC programme because the F1 race calendar is so busy," said Shovlin, speaking to select media, including RacingNews365.

"We haven't got a whole separate team of people that can do that. That's one of the realities of the cost cap, that you haven't got the test team that you used to have in years gone by.

"And Kimi is pretty busy with his F2 calendar, which is also, when you're in Europe, quite a focus."

Outlining what is to come, Shovlin added: "We've got more events planned, so we're doing a day with him here in Spa after the weekend, and then we've got other events further into the year.

"But it's all going well, and the programs now will drift towards teaching him how you need to refine the approach to qualifying, how you refine the approach to long runs.

"It's just trying to get all of that to work so he can have a clearer idea of what it is he needs to work on and improve, but it's all going well, and plenty more events planned."