De la Rosa next to join Pirelli

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Pedro de la Rosa will be the next driver to test tyres for Pirelli having lost his seat at Sauber.

Nick Heidfeld, who took de la Rosa’s place in the team, has already done work for the Italian tyre manufacturer, as has Romain Grosjean.

The Spanish driver will get behind the wheel of the Toyota F1 car being used by Pirelli at Circuito Ricardo Tormo in Valencia on October the fifth and sixth.

Read more: Pirelli swap Heidfeld for Grosjean in test "to avoid favouring any individual team"

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “De la Rosa next to join Pirelli”

  1. This where the F1 community as a whole needs PDLR. Doing development work on next years tires. He evidently has a flair for it (look at the in season progress Mclaren have been able to manage in the last few seasons while he was their test driver.)

    Also, and far more critically, he can no longer bore the pants off me on sunday afternoon’s :-)

    1. TheGreatCornholio
      23rd September 2010, 21:20

      Quality post, particularly the latter part! Lol

  2. I think the Pirelli test team ought to be the 13th team next season. They’ve got two half decent drivers, a good Toyota customer package and, of course, plenty of experience on the new tyres. They’d be a decent outside bet for the championship I think!

    1. Brilliant idea! They seem to have a decent budget, too.

  3. Merry-go-round?

    Whats next? Kobayashi tests, while Nick and De La Rosa drive?

    1. Kobayashi is too young for this job.

  4. Excellent news. I was expecting this to happen at some point and glad it has.

  5. Kind of nice that Pedro has got some job in F1. He wasn’t great on track but I liked him he was a nice guy

  6. according to a quote on Autosport they were impressed with Romain at Monza and will be retaining him too.

  7. Sound_Of_Madness (@)
    23rd September 2010, 19:19

    Good choice, de la Rosa is an excellent tester. It is the driving part where he messes up a bit :)

  8. Too bad for Grosjean, could’ve been his ticket into F1 next year.

  9. Doesn’t belong on this thread but some fascinating discussions this Thursday from the press releases from Singapore.

    Mclaren contradicting themselves, RBR saying that Ferrari are now their nearest competitor / threat.

    Its building nicely….

  10. TheGreatCornholio
    23rd September 2010, 21:27

    Definitely a good move by Pirelli, DLR may not be hot poop as a race driver but he’s a great test driver and has experience of current F1 cars and tyres. Perfect man for the job!

  11. Good one experience driver replaces another.

  12. He’s one of the best, if not the best test driver around, and he has a mammoth load of experience… This might not be where he wants to be, but it’s something he can do, and he can do it well.

  13. I wonder if PDLR has had a call from Martin Whitmarsh yet asking whether he wants his old job back… ;-)

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