After being informed by his former employer Peter Sauber that he no longer has a racing spot inside the Swiss team for the remainder of the ongoing campaign, everyone assumed De la Rosa would swap places with Nick Heidfeld and sign a testing deal with Pirelli. The day after, however, the Italian company announced they have signed former Renault F1 racer Romain Grosjean for the job, leaving De la Rosa's future uncertain.
It all worked out for the Spaniard in the end, as Pirelli chief executive Francesco Gori today announced, during a press conference at the Turkish factory where the F1 tires will be made, De la Rosa will join Grosjean in the testing lineup.
“So far, our work has been done by Nick Heidfeld, but since he has returned to racing, he will be replaced by Pedro de la Rosa and Romain Grosjean. They (de la Rosa and Grosjean) will test until the Abu Dhabi grand prix, and after that the teams will use the new tires,” said Gori, according to a report from the Spanish news agency Europa Press.
Pedro de la Rosa has tons of experience in testing F1 cars, as he has been the official test driver for McLaren Mercedes for no less than 7 seasons. Earlier this year he got his big break from testing and joined BMW Sauber-Ferrari as a racing driver on a contract that was supposed to last for 2 years, but his poor performances in the first 14 rounds – he was constantly outpaced by his rookie teammate Kamui Kobayashi – were enough for Sauber to oust him from his lineup.
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