Only 1 F1 starter at Jerez rookies’ test this week: a rundown of those testing

All of the Formula1 teams who raced in the 2009 season, barring Toyota, will field rookie F1 drivers this week at a test in Jerez, Spain.  Unfortunately, only one of the young drivers gathering on the Iberian peninsula has actually signed a contract with a F1 team for next season, Nico Hulkenberg for Williams.  While this lack of testing for those rookies actually starting F1 in just over three months would usually seem sort of silly, with the ever-lengthening 2010 silly season there are still nine (or eleven) race seats available for next season.  The complete list of announced F1 drivers and teams for 2010 was announced earlier Monday by the FIA.

This is the first test session since the beginning of the 2009 season in March.  If only because of the large numbers of open seats for 2010, it is important to take a closer look at the young drivers testing this week.  None of the new teams will be in Spain, but most of the teams testing already have driver line-ups settled for 2010. Only those drivers with minimal GP race experience are allowed to test.  Technically Kamui Kobayashi would have been eligible, but for Toyota’s non-presence, and his already clever F1 driving style.  Three of the teams testing (Renault, Toro Rosso, and MercedesGP) each have one open seat for next season.  BMW will not be racing in the 2010 season, but its reincarnation Sauber-Ferrari (Sauber-Petronas?) might be.

To begin, the following are the teams participating and those drivers testing for them, in no particular order:
BMW: Alexander Rossi (USA); Esteban Gutiérrez (Mexico)
Mercedes GP: Mike Conway (UK); Marcus Ericsson (Sweden)
Ferrari: Jules Bianchi (France); Daniel Zampieri (Italy); Marco Zipoli (Italy); Pablo Sánchez López (mexico)
Force India: J.R. Hildebrand (USA); Paul di Resta (UK)
McLaren: Gary Paffett (UK); Oliver Turvey (UK)
Red Bull Racing: Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)
Renault: Bertrand Baguette (Belgium); Ho-Pin Tung (China); Lucas di Grassi (Brazil)
Toro Rosso: Brendon Hartley (New Zealand); Mirko Bortolotti (Italy)
Williams: Andy Soucek (Spain); Nico Hülkenberg (Germany)

For BMW, Rossi and Gutiérrez have been offered their first F1 tests as rewards for winning the 2008 Formula BMW Americas and World Series championships (Rossi) and 2008 2008 Formula BMW Europe championship (Gutiérrez).  Both are from North America, with Rossi from California, in the United States, and Gutiérrez from Mexico.  Both also moved up in open-wheel series in 2009, as Rossi went to GP2 Asia (where he finished fourth and fifth in his first two races) and Gutiérrez went to Formula3 (where he finished ninth in the championship).

For MercedesGP (formerly BrawnGP), Conway is not as new to F1 as many of the others.  He was a test driver for the team when it was still Honda, and is currently racing in IRL, though he was the 2006 British F3 champion.  Ericsson, however, is not so experienced in terms of F1.  He was the 2007 Formula BMW UK champion and 2009 Japanese Formula Three champion and will start GP2 next season.

Ferrari has the largest stable of young talent, with four drivers testing at Jerez.  Bianchi is managed by Nicolas Todt, son of former Ferrari F1 team principal and new FIA president, and recently won the 2009 F3 Euroseries championship.  Zampieri is the recently-crowned 2009 Italian Formula3 champion, and will start his GP2 Asia career in 2010.  Zipoli finished second behind Zampieri in the Italian F3 championship this season, having driven for three separate teams during the season.  Sánchez López continued the Italian team’s reliance on Italian talent for the future, having finished third in the Italian F3 championship, a much better finish than in his Formula Renault season last year: second to last in the championship.

At Force India, Hildebrand will be looking to show off to European teams the skills he demonstrated when winning the 2009 IndyLights championship on ovals and road courses.  di Resta won the 2006 F3 Euroseries championship over Sebastian Vettel and has been driving against former F1 drivers in DTM since then, but always for Mercedes.

McLaren will use the services of regular tester Paffett, who currently races in DTM and won the championship in 2005, along with a German F3 championship in 2002.  The team also recently announced that Turvey will test because of his win as the 2006 McLaren BRDC Young Driver.

Red Bull will field only Ricciardo, who was the 2008 Formula Renault 2.0 WEC champion and 2009 British F3 champion and has personal Red Bull sponsorship.

Renault brings the most diverse group to the test in Spain, starting with the Belgian of the funny name, Baguette.  He won the 2009 World Series by Renault championship in his third season in the series.  Tung would become the first Chinese man in F1, but has not scored well in his two seasons in GP2, though he was the 2003 Formula BMW Asia champion and the 2006 German Formula Three champion.  di Grassi is the team’s regular test driver, and has raced the past four seasons in GP2, though he has never won a championship in that series.

Toro Rosso will use the services of Hartley, who raced in both the F3 Euroseries and and World Series by Renault in 2009, where he missed a total of eleven races between the two series.  Bortolotti won the 2008 Italian Formula3 championship and tested for Ferrari at the 2008 young drivers’ test.

Finally, Williams is testing one half of its drivers for 2010 (Hulkenberg) and Soucek, who dominated the F2 championship this past season.  Soucek could manage to take Hulkenberg’s position as tester for the team, but that would allow him to continue to gain racing experience with the continued in-season testing ban.

While this rookies test allows the various teams participating, and watching, a method to evaluate the young talent before they have to be put in a F1 ride, it also does little for the teams themselves.  They’ll be using the 2009 cars, and there are only three seats available for next season amongst those testing.  Still, one never knows when you’ll next see the names of those drivers getting their feet wet in F1 this week in Spain.