The single day for rookies in standard cars in 2021 will run parallel to a two-day 18-inch tire test for racing drivers.
Aston Martin does not have a junior driver program and while it may have access to Mercedes protégé Nyck de Vries, the Formula E champion will likely be used by the factory team for the rookie test.
The Silverstone team looked at other options, but ultimately decided that the most valuable way to use the test was to give Yelloly the ability to correlate the simulation with the real-life car.
The 30-year-old BMW GT racer has completed two tests for the team in his previous guise. In 2015 he completed one day at Force India in Barcelona, followed by two days in the same location at Racing Point in 2019.
The former GP3 and GP2 racing driver won the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2020 and was instrumental in developing the brand’s new M4 GT3 racing car for 2022, which will replace the outgoing M6.
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“Nick is a really good guy and he’s been with us for some time,” said Aston team boss Otmar Szafnauer to Autosport.
“There were other options, but we had to weigh these other options.
Yelloly started this year for BMW in the ADAC GT Masters series
Photo: Alexander Trienitz
“Your normal racing drivers won’t use you anyway. So that’s a perfect compromise. “
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Szafnauer emphasized that the team had a lot to gain by improving their sim correlation.
“[Yelloly] helps to develop the simulator itself, even more than the car, ”he explained.
“We always try to make the simulator’s software and hardware work a little better.
“And to do a really good job, you have to be able to relate what you feel in a simulation to a real car.
“And every now and then you have to drive a real car. So this is an opportunity we have to assist him in our development, and that is what we chose.
“It’s a good use of our test day and the simulator development ultimately helps with the car development.”
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