A wealth of new talent will take part in the upcoming young drivers' test day at Jerez on December 1-3. The test will be the first dedicated entirely to drivers who have competed in two grand prix or less. The innovation is a reaction to the in-season testing ban that has significantly restricted cockpit time for up and coming drivers.
Red Bull Racing (RBR) will call on the services of British Formula 3 champion Daniel Ricciardo, who has been a member of the drink company's young driver programme since 2007. The 20-year-old Australian dominated the British F3 title this year after previous success in Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula BMW.
Red Bull's sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso (STR) will give New Zealander Brendon Hartley further testing mileage on top of his previous experience for RBR. Red Bull protégé Mirko Bortolotti is expected to join Hartley at STR over the three days.
Williams will run Andy Soucek - the Spaniard's prize for winning this year's Formula 2 title - alongside new signing and 2009 GP2 champion Nico Hulkenberg. Despite their withdrawal from Formula One BMW Sauber will honour their commitments to award tests to Esteban Gutierrez and Alexander Rossi for winning last year's Formula BMW European and World titles respectively.
Ferrari will again award the top three drivers from Italian Formula 3 with track time, in an attempt to promote their home country's talent. Daniel Zampieri, Marco Zipoli and Pablo Sanchez are the drivers in question this year.
Renault will field 2009 World Series champion Bertrand Baguette alongside GP2 driver Lucas di Grassi. McLaren will call on experienced Brit Gary Paffett, who has tested for the team on a number of occasions since 2006 and drives permanently for Mercedes in DTM. Force India are expected to give Indian driver Karun Chandhok his first outing in a Formula One car since he tested with Red Bull in 2007.
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