Robin Frijns will have his first run in an official Formula One practice session in Bahrain this weekend.
Caterham confirmed Frijns will drive for the team in the first practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 champion will also make his third test appearance for the team in the post-race test at the circuit next week. Frijns has already driven the CT05 at Bahrain in testing and also spent a day in the car at the Jerez test.
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Image © Caterham/LAT
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
1st April 2014, 10:49
This story comes with a side order of April Foolery…
https://twitter.com/RFrijns/status/450932597661925376
https://twitter.com/RFrijns/status/450932715265605632/photo/1
favomodo (@favomodo)
1st April 2014, 12:02
Wow, looks rather good in orange :-)
Jake (@jleigh)
1st April 2014, 12:33
Indeed, as much as I suspected the foolery, I was kinda hoping it was true.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
1st April 2014, 12:35
Send it to Ron Dennis!
It’ll cost you, though – even Esso couldn’t pay him enough to have their logo the right colour.
PhilEReid (@philereid)
1st April 2014, 10:50
It’ll be interesting to see how he shapes up to Ericsson. Could be a good opportunity to show his speed, or atleast his relative speed.
MattDS (@mattds)
1st April 2014, 14:19
I really don’t need to see how he shapes up to Ericsson. I’m fairly confident he is a much, much better driver. Just look at their junior records. They tell enough.
Manox (@marussi)
1st April 2014, 16:36
let Frijns and Ericsson race each other and drop kobayashi
verstappen (@verstappen)
1st April 2014, 17:02
You accidentally switched ‘Kobayashi’ and ‘Ericsson’ there.
Manox (@marussi)
2nd April 2014, 10:07
No i mean it.
Girts (@girts)
1st April 2014, 10:50
That’s good news but it’s not enough. A Caterham race seat for a full season is the least Frijns deserves. I’m not saying he is definitely a future champion but if Bianchi and Magnussen are in F1 and Frijns doesn’t even get a chance to prove his worth, then it’s just unfair.
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
1st April 2014, 13:26
I do hope that he has a full time race drive in 2015! We could possibly see Frijns, Magnussen, Kvyat, Vandoorne and Sainz Jr on the grid! Just a few years ago, they were dominating the junior levels..
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
1st April 2014, 10:52
About time…
GeeMac (@geemac)
1st April 2014, 10:56
Marcus Ericsson beware…
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
1st April 2014, 11:07
Could be quite close between him and van der Garde. Depends what their teams are working on in practice.
Hopefully they will appear in a commentary box later in the weekend. Always good to hear what it’s really like to drive these cars: Coulthard, Brundle, McNish etc can only guess.
Felipe Nasr’s doing first practice too, but he’s got better things to do for the rest of the weekend – GP2 rounds 1 & 2!
Gordon (@)
1st April 2014, 11:46
At first I thought why choose Kobayashi over Frijns (even though I am glad he’s back in F1), but considering what the Caterham’s been like this year, I’d rather he comes into F1 next year maybe alongside Kamui as well.
Manox (@marussi)
1st April 2014, 12:14
Marcus did a good job in melbourne and malaysia. Ericsson even hade the fastest lap in the team.
George (@george)
1st April 2014, 18:32
I think both their drivers have been doing a good job so far considering how little practice they’ve had (both in the car overall and at race weekends). In any case, Frijns deserves a better car than a Caterham, similarly to Bianchi. I dare say if Sauber weren’t in such considerable financial difficulty they would have picked up at least one of them by now.
Deej92 (@deej92)
2nd April 2014, 0:02
I agree, they’ve both done a commendable job, as has the team.
After Australia they were looking to really struggle in this early part of the season, whilst Marussia got the upper hand in getting 13th place. The main objective for Malaysia therefore was surely for them to just get at least one car to finish the race. For them to get both to finish whilst overtaking Marussia straight after those Australia issues is impressive.
Mr_Peabody
2nd April 2014, 2:39
The good news is the green car is now about where they should have been for the second test. I would like to see either of the three drivers have a chance to mix it up in a well sorted car. However, since the leadership continues to be lacking I don’t see them getting to that point.