Mercedes 2014 car to join Silverstone test

While the test that takes place after next week's British Grand Prix is limited to just one car from each team, the Wehrlein run comes on the back of Pirelli's plan to develop its 2017 rubber.

It has elected to use the opportunity of F1 track running for the next stage of its testing programme, having recently completed a test at Paul Ricard in France with Red Bull.

Wehrlein's running will be solely focused on tyre developments and will be restricted to using the current dimension of tyres, as Pirelli evaluates its compound choices at this stage of testing.

Speaking about the run, Wehrlein said: “It's interesting for Pirelli, for the team and even for me to get experience with the tyres for next year, I'm really happy to do that and, yeah, it's good.”

Wehrlein is driving the 2014 car because Esteban Ocon is piloting Mercedes' current car for the two days of the test – as the German car manufacturer has to run a driver with fewer than two grands prix under his belt.

That is because it used Nico Rosberg and Werhlein at the post-Spanish Grand Prix test.

With Renault reserve Ocon driving for Mercedes at Silverstone, Renault will use Jolyon Palmer on the first day and then Sergey Sirotkin on day two.