A1 Team Ireland is joining Lebanon, South Africa and Brazil in testing a rookie at
Snetterton this week - with GP2 race winner Adam Carroll being invited to try out the car.
The 24-year-old will sample the 550bhp A1GP car at the British track today and tomorrow. Teams are allowed to arrange one rookie test during the off-season at a non-A1GP circuit with non-A1GP drivers.
The car will be in a plain black livery as the team prepares to announce its sponsorship line-up and a revised colour scheme for the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season, which commences at Zandvoort, the Netherlands on 30 September.
The team announced the move in a statement today, but shed no light as to whether Carroll would race for the team in the future.
“This week's rookie evaluation is the beginning of our on-track work for Season Three,” team owner Mark Kershaw told the official A1GP website -
www.a1gp.com. “We invited Adam Carroll to take part in order to help us examine possibilities in the future. One of the great things about A1GP is that teams can evaluate and nominate a squad of drivers.
“We are also talking to former drivers who have performed well for us and other rookies who are interested in racing for Ireland's national team, but it's early days yet – the first official
Silverstone test in a couple of weeks time will be more meaningful when we actually test against other teams, but we won't be rushing into any decisions.”
It is understood that the former drivers A1 Team Ireland is talking to are Ralph Firman, who was capped 16 times in 2005/06, and Richard Lyons, who won 14 caps last season.
