F1 NEWS - ROOKIE DRIVER TEST DRIVERS ANOUNCED
- 29 May 2013
Mercedes has confirmed that Sam Bird will drive for the team at the Young Driver test days to be held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 November.
British racer Sam, 23, drives for ART and will be competing in the final GP2 Series races in Abu Dhabi over the Formula One weekend. Sam is currently in fifth place in the GP2 standings with one win and four podiums this season, including the feature race victory, sprint race podium and both fastest laps at the penultimate race in Monza.
Williams have confirmed GP2 Champion Maldonado and Dean Stoneman will be testing, 20-year old Briton Stoneman won this year's Formula Two Championship which earned him the Williams test drive. Williams test driver Finn Valtteri Bottas will remain Williams test driver, but he will not participate in the young driver test days.
Ferrari will test 21-year old Brazilian Cesar Ramos, winner of the 2010 Italian Formula Three Championship, and also the numbers two and three in the championship, Stephane Richelmi and Andrea Caldarelli. The 20-year old Monegasque Richelmi is the son of former World Rally Championship driver Jean-Pierre Richelmi, and the also 20-year old Italian Caldarelli was active in the Eurocup Formula Renault series and the Formula Three Euroseries.
Belgium Jerome d'Ambrosio and Brazilian Liuz Razia will be testing for Virgin Racing, Sauber will test Mexicans Perez and Esteban Gutierrez, Red Bull will test their reserve driver Australian Daniel Ricciardo, and Toro Rosso will test Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne. Renault will run Renault World Series champion Russian Mikhail Aleshin, and perhaps Dutch-Chinese driver Ho-Pin Tung, McLaren hasn't released any names, but it is expected their reserve driver Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey will take the McLaren for a spin. Lotus and HRT haven so far not given any information about their test drivers.