Former IndyCar and Champ Car driver Franck Perera will join the GP2 field for this weekend's round at the Nurburgring, replacing Giacomo Ricci at DPR.
The 25-year-old Frenchman previously contested the 2006 season with DAMS, finishing second to Lewis Hamilton at Monaco, and says that he is looking forward to racing in Europe again after budget shortfalls thwarted his efforts to crack the United States.
"It's just a nice thing for me to be back in Europe and in GP2 especially – it's a chance to be back in the F1 world and to try to show what I can do," he told AUTOSPORT. "It is going to be hard for me in the first race at the Nurburgring because I have spent a lot of months without driving. Also, the car has changed a lot, and the drivers are all very competitive.
"So it is not going to be easy. But it is a challenge and I think we can do a very good job. The team has improved a lot from what I have heard and what I saw."
Perera contested three IndyCar Series rounds with Conquest at the start of 2008 – including the Champ Car finale in Long Beach – and also had a one-off IndyCar outing with A.J. Foyt Racing at Chicagoland Speedway at the end of the year. His last competitive drive was for AS Roma in Superleague Formula last season, although he also took park in the World Series by Renault winter test at Barcelona with Interwetten.
It is believed that this weekend's GP2 drive is intended as a one-off, however Perera said that further races were under consideration.