Virgin Racing confirms Soucek as third driver

Virgin Racing today confiremd that they have signed Andy Soucek as official test and reserve driver for the 2010 FIA Formula One Championship season. The Spanish Formula 2 Champion replaces Portugal's Álvaro Parente, who lost the seat due to sponsorship issues.

Soucek said: "I am thrilled to be joining Virgin Racing,. This role offers me a great opportunity to prepare myself for the Formula 1 environment, which is naturally where my longer-term ambitions lie.

"I look forward to learning from Timo and Lucas as well as soaking up as much information as possible from engineering meetings and time on the simulator. I would like to thank John Booth and Nick Wirth in particular for the faith they have shown in me at this stage in my career."

John Booth, Team Principal, added: "We are delighted to welcome Andy Soucek to Virgin Racing. He had a very good season in Formula 2 last year and a positive F1 test with Williams. He is certainly someone we have been keeping a close eye on, as we believe he has a great deal of potential. We expect him to be a real asset to our development programme with the VR-01 and at the same time he provides the experience we need, should he be required to deputise for one of the race drivers at short notice."