With the
GP2 Series teams set to commence their first three-day pre-season test at the Circuit de
Jerez on Tuesday, teams without a confirmed 2013 driver line-up are revealing who will be behind the wheel for them this week in Spain.
Catherham Racing have yet to confirm either of their drivers for the 2013
GP2 Series season, and surprised everyone on Monday morning by announcing that Chinese driver Ma Qing Hua and Spain's Sergio Canamasas will be running for them this week in Jerez.
Ma was the reserve driver for the now-defunct HRT F1 team last season and picked up three Friday practice session outings during the course of the year, becoming the first Chinese driver to participate in a F1 Grand Prix weekend.
"This will be my first time in a
GP2 car and it is a great opportunity for me to learn the car and work with such a professional team," said the 25-year-old from Shanghai, who added that he was looking forward to the opportunity to work with Caterham at Jerez.
He'll be joined in the test session by Sergio Canamasas, the Spanish driver who moved up from Formula Renault 3.5 Series to compete in half of the 2012
GP2 Series season with Venezuela GP Lazarus from Germany through to the season finale in Singapore.
"I am very happy to test with Caterham Racing in
Jerez and I am looking forward to it," said the 24-year-old, who tested with the Trident, Lotus GP and iSport teams in the post-season tests at the end of last year.
"My target will be to develop the car and to show good performance," he added. "We are going to put everything in to the test and I feel sure that the preparation I have done over the last three months will show."
Canamasas achieved some notoriety with his last
GP2 race outing when he failed to serve a drive-thru penalty for a member of his Lazarus team being late off the starting grid. Apparently suffering from radio failure, Canamasas also failed to see the increasingly frantic flag signals from the pits and ended up being disqualified from the Singapore sprint race.
Caterham Racing team manager Phill Spencer considers such unfortunate occurrences to be well and truly in the past, and was looking forward to giving both men a chance to prove themselves at
Jerez from tomorrow.