Spyker MF1 team's young guns

Nobody can accuse Spyker of not giving young drivers a chance. Including Monza, the weekend of the announcement of the takeover, in four races the team has taken the opportunity to give four promising young drivers an opportunity to drive the third car on Friday.

For Giorgio Mondini in Monza and Adrian Sutil at Suzuka this was of course not the first time they had sampled the M16 on a Grand Prix weekend, but two other drivers have been given their maiden outings. In Brazil this weekend it will be the turn of Ernesto Viso, the Venezuelan who has shown so well in F3000 and GP2 over the past three seasons. And in Shanghai a month ago it was his GP2 rival Alex Premat who had his first experience of a Grand Prix weekend.

Alex knows exactly what it will be like for Ernesto at Interlagos. Like Viso, the Frenchman had only a test in the car at Silverstone before his first public outing in the hurly-burly of a race meeting, on a track full of cars.

"I only knew the week before," Alex Premat recalls. "My sponsor wanted to help me to go into F1, and do one Friday with Spyker, and I think it was a really good thing to do.

"For sure, it was really exciting to drive the first time in F1, because it was a dream since I was a kid. I was surprised because the F1 car was a little bit different than GP2, with more horsepower, better brakes. But the most impressive thing was in the fast corners. It was a like a train going fast on rails, and under braking the car was really stable.

"Silverstone was really good, because I was as fast as Tiago and Christijan in the fast corners. In the slow corners it wasn’t so good because I braked a little bit early. For the first time in F1, it was not easy to be on the limit, and to understand the traction control. You need to believe the electronic systems, and for Shanghai, I believed in it a lot more! But it was great to drive in Silverstone, because it’s a fast track, and my time was not so bad."

Silverstone was a good start, but nothing can prepare you for running on a Grand Prix weekend on a track that you don’t know.

"Shanghai wasn’t an easy track to learn, but I like to learn new tracks, I love it like in GP2 in 2005 I didn’t know places like Budapest and Bahrain. It was pretty good on the Friday. I was quite quick in the first session, and the second session was not so bad but I had a problem with the clutch.

"When I had the new tyres I was confident in the car, but it was raining a little bit, the track was slippery, and I didn’t want to crash the car on my first time! I just wanted to do a really good job for the team.

"But I was sitting too high, and my neck is long, so after 40 laps my neck was really bad. I spoke also with Sebastian Vettel and he told me the same thing, but he was lower in the car."

Alex says he really enjoyed the experience of working with the Spyker crew.

"The team is so good because all the people are working hard, and they understand things very well. In GP2 this year I was with French people, and now it was English people. It’s not completely different, but it’s not easy to go into a team when you’re not used to it! But it was a good experience, I think.

"Now I want to speak with some teams to be in F1 for next year as third driver or fourth driver, and maybe race in 2008. In 2008 there could be a lot of places in F1. If not, maybe I will go into Champcar."

Alex hasn’t had it easy over the last two years, as he’s had two high profile team mates, both of whom won the GP2 title for ART.

"Nico is the son of Keke Rosberg, a famous person in F1. He is a good personality and I had a good time with him, and with Lewis I had a good feeling as well. For me it was not easy because Lewis is a really strong driver. Maybe I am similar to him, or maybe he is one tenth quicker than me, but it’s not a lot! I think it should be very good if Lewis goes to McLaren and shows his talent compared to Alonso…"