Lotus will also run in Spain with new F3 champion Esteban Ocon
Friday 17 October 2014 12:54, UK
Sauber will hand Formula 1 test debuts to teenager Roy Nissany and former GP3 driver Adderly Fong in a two-year-old car in Valencia next week.
The pair will sample F1 machinery for the first time on the permanent Ricardo Tormo circuit on the outskirts of the Spanish city and complete a day of running apiece in the Sauber C31 – the car which achieved four podium finishes in the 2012 season.
Nissany, a 19-year-old Israeli, who also holds a French passport, is currently competing in his second season in the F3 European championship and lies 18th in the standings ahead of the Hockenheim season finale this weekend. He is the son of Chanoch Nissany, who drove in a one-off practice session for Minardi aged 42 at the 2005 Hungarian GP.
“I am delighted to have the chance to test the Sauber C31, and I will put lots of efforts into it to do a good job,“ said Nissany, who will be behind the wheel of the C31 on Thursday.
Chinese driver Fong, meanwhile, will test on Wednesday on the back of a year in which he raced in his second season of GP3 up to the German rounds in July and since focused on the Asia-based Audi R8 LMS Cup, which he won last year.
It is not clear whether Sauber have handed the pair their F1 bows with a view to testing them on a more regular basis in the future. The struggling Swiss team will actually not be the only outfit running a car in Valencia next week as Lotus are testing their junior driver Esteban Ocon in their own two-year-old car, the E20, across the same two days as a reward for winning the European F3 title.
