Caterham will use the Young Drivers’ Test to run two drivers who have already had runs in the CT01 this year.
Giedo van der Garde will drive on the first two days of the test, followed by Alexander Rossi. Both have also spent the season driving for Caterham in junior categories.
Van der Garde is set to make his fourth appearance for the team this year tomorrow in practice for the Indian Grand Prix. He finished sixth in GP2 this year.
Rossi, who previously drove for the team in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, finished 11th in Formula Renault 3.5.
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AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
25th October 2012, 10:02
Caterham’s line-up for next year is still one of the big unknowns, and although I don’t think these two are the prime candidates to get a seat, it will be interesting to see how they get on. Van der Garde has had a reasonable season in GP2 this year, although it was disappointing in the sense that he should have been doing what Valsecchi did this year. I don’t know whether allowances should be made for the team he drives for, as both Valsecchi and Razia didn’t do any better for Caterham (then Air Asia, if I remember correctly) in 2011. In his free practice outings so far, he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire, but maybe he can find some more speed with a whole day in the car.
Rossi has shown promise in his career, but ultimately his 2012 WSR season was a disappointment.
James Hosford (@hosford90)
25th October 2012, 11:11
There clearly musn’t be an age limit for the inaccurately named ‘Young Driver Test.’
It seems, partially anyway, as if it should be called the ‘rich mediocre driver who the teams throw a bone to in order to placate the sponsors and still get the money without having to put them in a race seat’ test.
Van Der Garde, Razia, Valsecchi, Prost etc.
You wonder how many really fresh 18-19 year olds aren’t getting much-needed early chances at these sessions.
Nick (@npf1)
25th October 2012, 13:12
Should there be? Sure, van der Garde and Valsecchi have taken longer than Hamilton, Raikkonen or Alonso, but F1 is different now. The bottom 3 teams are hardly the place to be for young talents, where teams like Minardi in the past were able to produce future winners. Testing is gone, so teams want drivers who at least are experienced with open-wheeled racing cars, with GP2 or FR3.5 being the best options out there.
While I agree with the larger sentiment of ‘there should be more younger drivers as opposed to paying drivers’ at the Young driver test, putting a bunch of 18 year olds in those cars, who might be running in F3, FR2.0 or GP3 will not improve things much. Teams need to think about the near-future and testing, much like Ferrari, they could still run promising young drivers in 2 year old cars.
Nick (@npf1)
25th October 2012, 13:20
That being said, van der Garde might not be the best example, since he raced in F3 while guys like Hamilton and Rosberg were there, later with Di Resta and Vettel, guys like Petrov, Grosjean and Perez in GP2. He’s a little too slow, career wise.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
25th October 2012, 13:34
@adrianmorse I think it’s a fair point about measuring the drivers relative to the teams they drive for. I think a lot expected much of Van Der Garde this year.
DC (@dc)
25th October 2012, 12:58
When this season started, I had high hopes for Rossi moving up to GP2 next year, but his season has been abysmal. His team mate beat him by over 100 points, despite driving in five less races than him. He needs another year in 3.5, I think. I hope he gets it together, because I would like to see an American back in F1.