Liuzzi and Klien to test for Force India
Former Red Bull protégés Tonio Liuzzi and Christian Klien will test for the newly-renamed Force India team at Barcelona next week.
Both are searching for a race seat next season and will run on Wednesday and Thursday in the Silverstone-based squad’s 2007 F8-VII car alongside regular racer Adrian Sutil.
Sutil is the only driver confirmed in the team’s 2008 line-up so far, so the two-day test run will give both Liuzzi and Klien a chance to stake a claim to partner the young German.
Force India will begin its preparations for its first season with its contracted test drivers Roldan Rodriguez and Giedo van der Garde at the wheel of the two chassis on Tuesday.
The F8-VIIs, fitted with the new-for-2008 standard FIA electronic package, will run in new burgundy red and white interim livery, replacing previous owner Spyker’s distinctive orange colour scheme.
The test will reunite Liuzzi and Klien after the pair shared a seat at Red Bull Racing in 2005 after they had each been backed on the road to to Formula 1 by the energy drink firm.
Both remained in the Red Bull family into 2006, with Klien given the nod to keep the drive full-time at RBR while Liuzzi was farmed out to junior outfit Toro Rosso.
However Klien split with RBR three races before the end of that season after finding out that his old Jaguar team-mate Mark Webber would be replacing him for 2007 and then turning down the energy drink firm’s offer to drive for its Champ Car team.
He resurfaced as Honda’s third driver for 2007 and had hoped to land a race seat at the Brackley squad for 2008 – but it opted to retain its current line-up.
The Austrian was also in the frame to replace Christijan Albers at Spyker mid-way through last season after completing a test for the team, but the then Dutch-owned outfit opted for Sakon Yamamoto.
Liuzzi meanwhile left Toro Rosso following last month’s Brazilian Grand Prix and was linked with the second drive at Williams until Kazuki Nakajima was handed the seat earlier this week.
Toyota exile Ralf Schumacher has also been linked with the second drive at the Vijay Mallya co-owned Force India team.
Source: itv-f1
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