Aragon likely new venue for McLaren-Pirelli test

McLaren and Pirelli look set to head to Spain, after failing to get the FIA’s green light for a 2014 tyre test in Austin later this month.

Reportedly after rival teams complained the British team might get an unfair advantage by testing its 2011 car in Texas just a few weeks before the US grand prix, the FIA put a stop to the plans.

But after rival top teams Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull conducted private Pirelli testing earlier this year, McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh sounded frustrated.

"We are talking about the 2011 car with 2014 tyres, and we would not have taken our race drivers.

"I don’t know how the other teams can think it’s an advantage for us," he is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Anyway, a new venue for the McLaren-Pirelli test is now being sought.

Correspondent Michael Schmidt said Pirelli does not like Jerez, because the asphalt is too abrasive.

And "at Barcelona and Paul Ricard," Whitmarsh said, "it’s probably already too cold in late October."

Schmidt said Aragon, the Hermann Tilke-penned MotoGP track located in north eastern Spain, is the likely venue.