NOVEMBER 25, 2004

Get them young and train them

The BAR-Honda team has conducted a three-day evaluation of a number of rising stars, looking for the men most likely to be the stars of tomorrow.

The BAR-Honda team has conducted a three-day evaluation of a number of rising stars, looking for the men most likely to be the stars of tomorrow. According to Motorsport News the team put the drivers through a series of tests in road cars at the Bruntingthorpe testing ground, while also checking them out with mental, physical and verbal tests. There were nine drives involved: British Formula 3 champion Nelson Piquet Jr and runners-up Adam Carroll, James Rossiter and Danilo Dirani. Alexandre Premat, who finished second in the Formula 3 Euroseries and fellow Euro racer Nico Rosberg plus Formula Nissan champion Heikki Kovalainen and two others who have won major titles in recent years: Alan van der Merwe (last year's British F3 champion) and Formula Renault V6 champion Jose Maria Lopez.

The one man missing from the test was Formula 3 Euroseries Champion Jamie Green who, ironically, has been linked with a possible test drive for BAR for some months. The team is reported to be looking for a new test driver but it is not clear why this is necessary as BAR has contracts with Anthony Davidson and Enrique Bernoldi. Davidson is trying to get a race drive elsewhere but at the moment there is no sign of a deal from anywhere, unless there is a change in attitudes at some of the teams which have available drives.