Test drivers in motorsport

[Roo]

Alex Zanardi drove the Williams FW20 at a 1998 Catalunya post-season test:

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Rick Mears testing in 80 for Brabham was with in a quarter of a second off Piquet and the story goes he was offered the job, but decided to stay at Penske in the U.S. to race.

There was a second test supposedly as well in the States and he was faster than Piquet but as I said stayed with Penske

 

[crooky369]

Fernando Alonso, testing for Jaguar in 2002 at Silverstone.

Beat me to it! Oh well a few more then

Also sportscar ace Lotterer again in the Jaguar

What a driver lineup that would be.

 

[crooky369]

Hakkinen returns to Mclaren in 2006.

With some other unknown test driver?

 

[Kingofweasles]

Rick Mears testing in 80 for Brabham was with in a quarter of a second of Piquet and the story goes he was offered the job, but decided to stay at Penske in the U.S. to race.

From the Motorsport.com article I read, Rick Mears had two tests with Brabham over the course of 1980: One at Paul Ricard in France and the other at Riverside Raceway in California. At the end of the Paul Ricard test he was about half a second off of Piquet's time, but at the end of the Riverside test Mears was faster than Piquet.

Ultimately, though he and Brabham boss Bernie Ecclestone came to terms for a contract for 1981, Mears chose not to pursue it and stayed at Team Penske.

 

[RisingStar]

Sebastien Bourdais testing for Arrows in 2002 (shortly before they went bust)

 

[RisingStar]

Justin Wilson testing for Jordan in 2001

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

From the Motorsport.com article I read, Rick Mears had two tests with Brabham over the course of 1980: One at Paul Ricard in France and the other at Riverside Raceway in California. At the end of the Paul Ricard test he was about half a second off of Piquet's time, but at the end of the Riverside test Mears was faster than Piquet.

Ultimately, though he and Brabham boss Bernie Ecclestone came to terms for a contract for 1981, Mears chose not to pursue it and stayed at Team Penske.

Yeah I have that in my post about both tests, not sure why it didn't come through on your end. As for the half or quarter second, the story Mears tells is that he was a quarter second slower than Piquet at the French track he'd never driven. And was faster than Piquet at the track in California. The rest echoes my post...I'm confused.

 

[Liquid]

Ralf Schumacher testing for McLaren in early 1996. Jordan signed him in September of that year to drive in 1997.

Nigel Mansell looking for a drive in 1997 by testing for Jordan in late 1996.

Jordan eventually settled on Giancarlo Fisichella, buying out his Minardi contract.

In an alternate reality Jordan's 1997 line-up could have been Ralf Schumacher and Nigel Mansell.

Or possibly even Martin Brundle and Nigel Mansell.

 

[jake2013guy]

Tom Coronel test. http://www.crash.net/f1/news/34911/1/coronel-prepares-for-f1-test.html

Barcelona 99

 

[Fryto]

Alan van der Merwe (F1 Medical Car driver since 2009), running a specially outfitted BAR-Honda at the Bonneville salt flats in 2006.

 

[Liquid]

How fast did it go?

 

[daan]

They were aiming for 400km/h, but fell a few short.

 

[Liquid]

A Williams-BMW might have done that. At the time the BMW was by far the quickest engine.

 

[Dotini]

Rudolph Carraciola goes 432.7 km/h on the autobahn in 1938 with his rebodied W125 Mercedes-Benz GP car.

 

[adam46]

Some bloke called Niki testing a Jaguar in Valencia while he was part of the team in 2002.

 

[Fryto]

Zak Brown sampling Häkkinen's MP4-16 at Silverstone

 

[boiltheocean]

Zak Brown has owned that car for quite a few years now.

 

[TDZdave]

Have a gander at this thread @JonoStan96

 

[JC_Dude]

Marcus Ericsson testing for Brawn.

 

[jake2013guy]

Marcus Ericsson testing for Brawn.

And here's Sage Karam/Marcus Ericsson.

 

[mwoodski]

Tall Man Justin Wilson testing a 2001 Minardi in 2003, on F3000 Avon slicks.

 

[Peter.]

Bruno Senna testing for Honda in 2008. He almost got the Brawn drive, but they decided to go with experience in Barrichello.

 

[Suzumiya]

Current day 4-time GT500 Driver's Champion Ronnie Quintarelli testing at Silverstone in 2006 for Midland F1.

 

[Liquid]

Silverstone, 1996

Alain Prost giving the McLaren MP4/11 a shakedown.

This might have been the final year McLaren invited him to test the new car in an "official" capacity.

 

[Ryk]

Bit of JYS in the non JPS Lotus-Honda 100T

 

[jake2013guy]

Oriol Servia Prost 2000

 

[jontikis]

Gil de Ferran testing with Footwork at the Autodromo do Estoril, 1993

Scott Dixon testing with Williams, 2004

Tom Kristensen testing with Minardi...

... Williams ...

... and Tyrrell

 

[RisingStar]

Pedro De La Rosa testing for Prost in 2001

 

[TheElbows]

Anyone else looking through this thread and realizing the vast majority of F1 cars in the past 20 years have been friggin' heinous?