American F1 hopeful Alexander Rossi has been confirmed as the latest addition to the Abu Dhabi Young Driver test, held Nov. 15-17 at the Yas Marina circuit.
As part of a busy week-plus for Caterham Team AirAsia, Rossi will run in the non-championship GP2 Series season finale for Caterham and slide over to Team Lotus – Caterham's F1 counterpart, which it hopes to also rename as Caterham – for a full day of Formula 1 testing.
Rossi recently participated in GP2 tests at Barcelona and Jerez, and also has prior GP2 race experience from the GP2 Asia ranks for the 2009-'10 off-season. He moved to GP3 in 2010 and finished fourth in the championship.
“After the positive GP2 tests in Jerez and Barcelona, I feel we have a good chance of a strong result in the GP2 races and I will definitely be going into the weekend fully focused and motivated for a race win,” Rossi said. “Looking at the team's past results, I see no reason why we can't achieve that. For the F1 test I will be looking to learn as much as possible, do the best job I can and soak up every minute, in and out of the car.”
Rossi finished third in this year's Formula Renault 3.5 World Series behind only Robert Wickens and Jean-Eric Vergne, both of whom are also seeking to get into F1 race seats. Wickens will have a day with Lotus Renault GP as his reward for the 3.5 championship and likely a day with Marussia Virgin as well. Vergne has been slotted in for first practice session runs in the final two grands prix of the season with Scuderia Toro Rosso.
The American last raced in the U.S. in 2008, winning the Formula BMW Americas championship in its final season.