SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Pedro de la Rosa confirmed as Pirelli tester

Pirelli has confirmed today that Pedro de la Rosa will replace Nick Heidfeld as the official test driver for the Italian company, as it prepares to enter Formula One in 2011 as the series official tyre manufacturer.

Heidfeld was recently released by Mercedes GP to take up the testing position and carried out the initial test for Pirelli in an ex-Toyota F1 chassis - but as the German was slotted in to take over De la Rosa's Sauber seat for the rest of the season, De la Rosa has now swapped places with him, and will do the remainder of the tyres tests.

De la Rosa has raced for Arrows, Prost, and Jaguar in F1, and prior to his Sauber drive this season spent many years as McLaren's third driver, filling in on a number of occasions and scoring his best result at the 2006 Hungarian GP, finishing second - and brings with him a great mass of testing experience, which will aid Pirelli greatly.

Romain Grosjean, who filled it at Pirelli in it's recent test at Monza, will continue to test for the tyre company as well.

Pedro de la Rosa said, "I'm really pleased to be joining Pirelli. Tyre testing is something that I have always enjoyed as it is a very big challenge, especially in Formula One. The information you can get from telemetry and sensors is valuable, but nothing replaces the individual feeling of a driver with new tyres so I hope I can be a real asset to Pirelli. There's not a lot of time left and a huge amount of work to do, but I'm very much looking forward to it and I am sure that our collaboration will be a success. A lot of useful work has been done already and now we have the opportunity of taking it forward."