Fisichella Completed First Test on Ferrari F10

Giancarlo Fisichella proceeded to his first drive of the new Ferrari F10 this week, during the promotional action set up by the Italian team on the Jerez circuit in Spain. Although it was initially believed that Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will each take the new Ferrari to the track for filming purposes on Monday and Tuesday respectively, the Scuderia decided to hand the single-seater to Fisico.

The Italian veteran will be test/reserve driver for Ferrari for the upcoming season – he actually signed a deal with the team for the next 10 years – and will not get the chance to drive the F10 that often through 2010. And that's because the Scuderia will use their race drivers during the Friday practice sessions of each grand prix weekend, while in-season testing will be banned.

Under the circumstances, this was Fisichella's last chance to try out the new car, which he did in torrential rain conditions. The poor weather affected the last week's testing action on the Spanish circuit, and is scheduled to do the same this week.

The 37-year old Roman will today hand the driving responsibilities to Massa, as the Brazilian will be the first Ferrari driver to take the B version of the F10 – code-named internally the 282 – to the Jerez track, after the A version was driven by him and Alonso through the first 7 days of winter testing.

Massa will debut the car today and continue to drive it around the Spanish track tomorrow, before handing it to Fernando Alonso for the final 2 days of testing.