6.12.09

For three days this week the F1 teams have been giving young drivers a run at Jerez. All of the 2009 teams bar Toyota took part, with "Sauber" one of them. This follows Toyota's decision to give up their 2010 entry, BMW's sale of their team back to its founder and their being granted the 13th spot in the pit lane next year.

18 drivers were given this wonderful opportunity. Since we have no idea what configuration the cars were running in, times are probably not significant, but this is motor racing so F2 Champion Andy Soucek was quickest on Tuesday for Williams with a 1:19.158s; on Wednesday it was DTM driver Gary Paffett for McLaren on 1:18.718s (though he's a bit of an old hand). British F3 champion Daniel Ricciardo was quickest on Thursday and overall for Red Bull with a 1:17.418s.

With testing severely limited, the teams used the opportunity for some real work and many of the youngsters completed an impressive number of laps. These included Formula 3 Euro Series champion Jules Bianchi who did 90 laps for Ferrari on Tuesday and 113 on Wednesday. His best position was fifth on Tuesday, just under half a second slower than Soucek, but the 20 year old Frenchman looks to have done a better job with the F60 than anyone else who's driven it this year apart from Massa and Raikkonen. On Wednesday it was announced that he'd signed a long-term deal with Ferrari; his role is yet to be defined. Bianchi is managed by former Ferrari boss Jean Todt's son Nicolas, who also manages Felipe Massa. Bianchi will compete in GP2 next season with Todt's ART team.

On Thursday Ferrari ran the top three finishers in this year's Italian F3 Championship. The quickest of the three was Mexican, Pablo Sanchez Lopez. Daniel Zampieri and Marco Zipoli also achieved that which of many dream, but few realize - to drive for Scuderia Ferrari. However, it did emerge at Jerez that there was one who had the chance but turned it down: GP2 Champion Nico Hulkenburg revealed that he was offered a drive as substitute for the injured Felipe Massa but said no. He says he has no regrets and given the way the massively experienced Badoer and Fisichella struggled with the recalcitrant F60, he was definitely right. Hulkenburg is managed by Michael Schumacher's manager Willi Weber and so far is the only one of the young drivers tested at Jerez to have secured an F1 drive next season - at Williams alongside Rubens Barichello.

This test was good to see and it is hoped the FIA institute more to alleviate the difficulties and dangers faced by the young drivers who come into F1 with no experience - like this year. Meanwhile, we Tifosi must keep an eye on Bianchi....