DTM driver Daniel Juncadella has been signed by Force India as their reserve driver for the coming season. He will participate in Friday practice sessions for the team.
The 22-year-old from Barcelona won the European Formula Three championship in 2012 before joining Mercedes’ DTM team last year.
Force India co-owner Vijay Mallya described Juncadella as an “exciting prospect”.
“Over the last few years we have always tried to support young, talented drivers and we will continue down this path by giving Daniel the opportunity to drive the VJM07 on Friday mornings at selected races.
“Daniel will also play an important role in our simulator programme at the factory, which remains an increasingly important development tool.”
Juncadella, who drove for Williams in last year’s Young Drivers Test, said the move is a “fantastic opportunity” and hopes it will “take me a step closer to eventually racing in Formula One”.
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Image © Williams/LAT
BasCB (@bascb)
24th January 2014, 9:38
Good to see that FI is putting in a pretty solid team of drivers!
now if only they could get their photoshopping done a little bit less obvious (the claro logo on the cars, now look at who’s head is just planted on top of Perez’ body there!)
BasCB (@bascb)
24th January 2014, 9:38
Thanks for putting in your own pic from the past @keithcollantine!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
24th January 2014, 9:40
Hulkenberg and Perez driving with Juncadella as reserve is a decent line-up. Compared to Sauber who have Sutil and Gutierrez backed up by Van der Garde and Sirotkin…
Sri Harsha (@harsha)
24th January 2014, 10:00
What about James Calado I think is he with SFI
BasCB (@bascb)
24th January 2014, 10:02
not anymore @harsha, Juncadella replaced him.
Indeed Keith, a very decent line-up and far more inspiring than what Sauber ended up with (although VdGarde does seem to be someone who can motivate a team, and maybe Guttierez does step up and show that he can be as good as he was in GP3)
Sri Harsha (@harsha)
24th January 2014, 10:55
@bascb Thanks i thought he was too there.
Keith is right though SFI line up is head and shoulders above Sauber Line up. Lets see how their cars fare
@HoHum (@hohum)
24th January 2014, 14:55
@keithcollantine, Keith it seems to me that in todays market the team/driver relationship should be reversed ie. ” Test driver Jancadella signs Force India as team” and of course we now have a great scale for driver talent $m.
hemzshaw
24th January 2014, 10:02
On F1.com, they have put a pic of him in the new driver overalls.. What they did to the car should have been done for the overalls as well.. Such a shame that one
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
24th January 2014, 10:12
That’s Force India’s second surprise in 3 days – I was expecting him to pop up at Williams, with his recent testing and Mercedes links.
Very good move for Daniel though – FI seem to treat their reserve drivers well, many of them end up racing (Liuzzi, di Resta, Hülkenberg) and the others still get opportunities to drive, like Calado.
Do Williams have someone else lined up? A back-up Felipe. Or even Mrs Wolff…
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
24th January 2014, 12:16
Indeed.. Felipe Nasr…
Deej92 (@deej92)
24th January 2014, 13:41
Mind you, if you look closely the picture they released the other day had Astana on it, who back Juncadella.
I’d say Williams have a back-up Felipe, too.
Fixy (@)
24th January 2014, 18:11
@bullfrog I think I’ve missed the news… where is Calado off to?
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
24th January 2014, 18:28
No idea, sadly…he’s not saying, either. I meant in 2013, he drove in a lot of practice sessions for Force India.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
24th January 2014, 10:34
Thank god keith has posted a profile picture of Juncadella, bbc made the mistake to aim at his eyes, how much more crossed eye can you get.
Arijit (@arijitmaniac)
24th January 2014, 11:26
Anyone seen this?
Force India have only revealed a profile picture of the VJM07. This provides some more information.
Force India VJM07 – stepped chassis
Wonder if this is true.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
24th January 2014, 13:46
FUN FACT: Juncadella is Luis Perez Sala’s nephew.
R.J. O'Connell (@rjoconnell)
24th January 2014, 17:32
Is he still doing DTM in 2014? His results in 2013 were fairly dire, but then again, very few open-wheel drivers get it right in their first year.