Jerez Test Lineups, Lotus to Debut T127

The Circuito Permanente de Jerez will host its second and last testing session of the off-season this week, when no less than 10 teams will send their 2010 single-seaters to the track starting first thing tomorrow morning. And, as compared to the action last week, a few changes are expected to take place in terms of starting cars.

First of all, the second Jerez test – due to take place between February 17 and 20, meaning Wednesday thru Saturday – will witness the debut of Lotus F1 Racing with their brand new T127. The team's test/reserve driver Fairuz Fauzy will be the first one to take the Cosworth-powered car to the track, before Heikki Kovalainen (Thursday, Friday) and Jarno Trulli (Saturday).

Additionally, Virgin Racing will hopefully have more time to see their VR-01 in action as compared to last week, when their lack of spare parts caused some significant delays in the testing schedule. The order in which Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi will take the car to the test is yet to be announced.

Also, Paul di Resta will debut on the Force India VJM03 on Wednesday, when he'll drive the car in the morning session (before handing it to Adrian Sutil). The Brit, currently a Mercedes driver in the DTM Series, will be test/reserve driver for Force India next season and will drive the VJM03 during some Friday practice sessions throughout the year, as confirmed by the team.

Ferrari are also expected to bring something new to the table this week, as they previously announced the debut of their B version for the F10 at Jerez. The car was already in action for promotional purposes on Monday (and is expected to hit the track on Tuesday also), and will be debuted in testing on Wednesday by Felipe Massa. Fernando Alonso is scheduled to drive it during the last 2 days of testing.

Here is the rest of the schedule for this week's test:

Mercedes GP: Michael Schumacher (Wednesday/Friday), Nico Rosberg (Thursday/Saturday)
Red Bull: Sebastian Vettel (Wednesday/Thursday), Mark Webber (Friday/Saturday)
Sauber: Pedro de la Rosa (Wednesday/Thursday), Kamui Kobayashi (Friday/Saturday)
Williams F1: Rubens Barrichello (Wednesday/Thursday), Nico Hulkenberg (Friday/Saturday)
Renault: Vitaly Petrov (Wednesday/Thursday), Robert Kubica (Friday/Saturday)
Force India: Paul di Resta (Wednesday), Adrian Sutil (Wednesday/Thursday), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Friday/Saturday)
Toro Rosso: Sebastien Buemi (Wednesday/Thursday), Jaime Alguersuari (Friday/Saturday)

One thing that won't change, however, is the weather, as rain is expected to hit the Jerez track through the entire week.