The whole young drivers thing is a massive mess.
Alfa wanted to be able to run two cars so they could run Kubica and a FDA member
Renault found out about this and decided to ask if they could run Alonso
Racing Point decided to fight back a bit (some animosity there from the brake duct thing???) but then also said if they could run Seb they’d be okay with it
Ferrari went if you want to run Sebastian we want to run Sainz and basically we won’t allow you to run Seb unless we can run our driver for next year too
However Mclaren doesn’t want to let Sainz do the test and it’s not a matter of ‘oh they can just run Daniel and he gets practice too’ next years Mclaren will be the one car on the grid that is largely different from the 2020 car design next year. Therefore Mclaren will gain very little from doing the test and it’ll be at a large expense.
I honestly feel that the FIA really need to tighten down on what classifies a ‘young driver test’ and if need be also have a specific ‘post season test’ as younger drivers need to be given a chance, especially when you have teams like Renault and Ferrari and even Williams who have substantial young driver programmes that they aren’t using
