America's Alexander Rossi joined the first post-season World Series by Renault 3.5 test in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday and Wednesday this week with the ISR Racing team, for which he made his series debut in Monaco earlier this year. Rossi, a winner this year at the Spanish GP circuit in the GP3 Series, has also raced previously with ISR in the International Formula Masters Series last year, where he scored three wins, and hopes to become a regular on the team's World Series squad – which scored seven race wins this season – in 2011.
On the opening day of the test, Rossi posted a lap time more than half a second quicker than the pole time set last weekend for the WSR season finale at Catalunya. This speed came despite the fact that the session ran in varying wet to dry conditions.
“In my first WSR experience earlier this year in Monaco, we immediately had pace. Coming into this test my expectations were the same, and I was not disappointed," said Rossi, who won the Formula BMW Americas title before switching to European ladder series. "It was a fantastic result – we were able to show consistency and the pace that proves ISR can win many races in 2011.”
Rossi only ran in the afternoon on Wednesday, yet still wound up second overall for the two days with a personal best of 1:33.100, just 0.28sec off P1 Motorsports and World Series veteran Brendon Hartley.
“I'm a little disappointed to have been knocked from the top spot at the end to finish second. However, the main thing is to show that we were clearly quick and consistent in both the wet and the dry," Rossi added. "I believe we were able to do that.”
ISR boss Igor Salaquarda was clearly convinced, and said Rossi would test again for the team at Spain's Aragon Motorland circuit on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
“It was great to have Alexander back with our team again,” he said. “Alexander is a very quick, serious, and committed racer and, as we expected, he was immediately on top of the time sheets. Alexander and his management are currently reviewing 2011 plans and we'd love to have him with us in WSR next season. We'll have him back in the car next week for two more days of testing.”
Rossi, who tested for the F1 Sauber BMW team at the end of 2009 as a reward for winning the Formula BMW World Final, and thereby qualified for an F1 superlicense, remains focused on becoming the next American to race in F1.