Britain’s James Rossiter was back on the rota for Honda yesterday as he piloted the RA107 around the Circuit de Catalunya in F1’s first post-season test.
This is an interesting development as Rossiter, initially confirmed in November 2006 as a test driver for the Northamptonshire-based outfit alongside Austria’s Christian Klien, was then moved in May 2007 to B-team Super Aguri.
Klien has been released by Honda as he goes in search of another race drive, this time competing with Vitantonio Liuzzi for a seat at Force India. Whether Rossiter will keep his A-team test seat is at present unclear.
Back in the Honda car, which went out on the Barcelona track in a plain white livery rather than the controversial ‘Earth Car’ design which it wore during 2007, he put in 69 laps and managed a fastest time of 1:24.480 – only enough to put him 17th overall.
He was joined for testing by GP2’s Andreas Zuber who managed to bring his car home 14th fastest with 77 laps and a top time of 1:24.065.