Having secured the 2008 title thanks to Giorgio Pantano, Racing Engineering will begin its search for a replacement for the Italian during this week's two-day test session at Jerez.

The GP2 teams will head to Spain on Wednesday and Thursday with Alfonso de Orleans Borbon's team running four drivers with plenty of experience of the Dallara GP2 machine over the course of the test – having given rookie drivers their chance to shine during the earlier test session at Paul Ricard.

Day one of the test will see Alvaro Parente and Andreas Zuber both take to the track as they seek to secure a drive for 2009.

For Parente, the test will be a return to familiar surroundings, with the Portuguese racer having taken part in the Spanish F3 Championship for the team back in 2002, before going on to win titles in both British F3 and the World Series by Renault. He finished his rookie season in GP2 in a solid eighth position in the standings. Zuber meanwhile will drive the second car as he seeks to build on his already extensive GP2 knowledge, which includes being on the grid for the current Asia campaign.

Luca Filippi and Vitaly Petrov will then get behind the wheel for the second day of the test.

Italian driver Filippi has already tested with Racing Engineering in 2007 and will be back with the Spanish team in Jerez as he seeks to secure a seat for a fourth season in the series as he seeks to rebound to the kind of form that saw him finish fourth in the standings in 2007. He will be joined by Petrov, who finished the 2008 campaign in seventh place in the standings and is another driver taking part in the Asia series over the winter.