“I am thrilled to be joining Virgin Racing. This role offers me a great opportunity to prepare myself for the Formula 1 environment, which is naturally where my longer-term ambitions lie,” said Soucek, who has been previously linked with test-driving roles for McLaren Mercedes, Sauber F1 or even Williams.
“I would like to thank John Booth and Nick Wirth in particular for the faith they have shown in me at this stage in my career. It is exciting and very motivating to be part of a new structure in such a challenging sport and I hope that my experience can contribute a great deal to the development of the car and team in order to help us progress as quickly as possible,” added the Spaniard.
Soucek will join the team at Barcelona for the last test of the season, but will not take the wheel of the VR-01 prior to the start of the season. Instead, he is scheduled to do some F1 simulations in the weeks to come.
“We are delighted to welcome Andy Soucek to Virgin Racing. He had a very good season in Formula 2 last year and a positive F1 test with Williams. He is certainly someone we have been keeping a close eye on as we believe he has a great deal of potential,” said the team's principal John Booth.
“We are pleased to have finalized our driver line-up and we look forward to having Andy alongside us in Barcelona later this week so he can spend some valuable familiarization time with the team,” added Booth.
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