Remember when... Max Biaggi tested an F1 car

He's raced many different motorbikes over the years, but while Max Biaggi will always be remembered for his exploits on two wheels, he did briefly have a crack at four wheels at the very highest level with an impromptu test in an F1 car exactly ten years ago.

'Exiled' from MotoGP, Valentino Rossi's former arch nemesis was 'between jobs' come January 2006 ahead of what would eventually blossom into a successful tenure in the World Superbike Championship, but on this day ten years ago he was controlling something a little more powerful as he joined the Midland F1 team during a private - and very cold - test at Silverstone.

The Midland team - formerly known as Jordan (later to become Spyker and then Force India) - was at Silverstone to shakedown its new Toyota engine with Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro, but allowed Biaggi a few installation laps as well.

"It was quite exciting," he told Crash.net straight after the run. "It was my first time at Silverstone. It was a really good opportunity. Unfortunately the weather was very wet, it was not so nice.

"It was good, I went out the pit, it was a good start, then take off the speed limit and then I click into second, third, and up through to seventh gear, and it was easy."

His first test in an F1 car since a run in a Ferrari seven years earlier (1999), Biaggi explained that he was offered the chance to test a month earlier but admitted he had to think about it.

"The phone rang and they offered me the possibility," he explained. "The possibility was to make this happen was given to me one month ago, I had a think about it and then I decided, why not? I took the chance and now I know the track."

Biaggi's previous time in an F1 car was at the Ferrari test track of Fiorano exactly seven years ago, and it was a full day with some sixty laps action he enjoyed. Despite this, he felt the short time in the more modern Midland car was more intense.

"The last time when I drove a car was five years ago with the Ferrari - and my feeling was completely different of course. It was a long time ago. Here was wet but seven years ago was completely dry.

"With the briefing and a little bit before that they explained to me how the steering wheel worked, with all the buttons, the electronic things, the radio to communicate with the team so it was quite intensive, in the short time."

Biaggi isn't the only former MotoGP rider to have a go behind the wheel of an F1 car. Valentino Rossi has formerly spoken of an interest in F1 and has subsequently tested a Ferrari before, while John Hopkins got some time in a Toro Rosso in 2006, while Vitantonio Liuzzi rode his Suzuki MotoGP machine.

For more images from Max Biaggi's F1 test, scroll through the above gallery