London, England - Formula One world champion Mercedes will be absent from a pre-season wet tyre test organised by Pirelli in southern France in January and attended by the three other F1 engine manufacturer s.
Pirelli said on Monday that only Ferrari, Renault-powered Red Bull and Honda partner McLaren would take part in the two day test at Le Castellet on 25 and 26 January.
Run with the 2014 cars, the limited mileage test will be controlled by Pirelli and monitored closely by the governing International Automobile Federation.
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Pirelli had stated in a note to teams that it wanted to limit attendance because it was hard to control conditions on the watered track and it could not have more than three cars running at the same time.
Belgian test driver Stoffel Vandoorne is scheduled to attend for McLaren.
Mercedes, which has dominated the past two seasons with triple champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, is fully focused on the first proper test of the season with the 2016 cars in Barcelona from 22-25 February.
A second official test is scheduled for the same Circuit de Catalunya from 1-4 March.
The 2016 Formula One season will start in Australia on March 20.
Reuters
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