Childs Play

This week has seen young drivers who haven't yet had their chance in Formula 1 take to the wheels of some of the world's best cars, but were they any good? I'm going to assess who are the Hamiltons and who are the Scott Speeds and whether we are likely to see any of them again.

This was the final action of F1 2010. No cars will be seen testing again until the new year but this test wasn't about making strides with next year's car; it was (mostly) devoted to giving the 'stars of the future' their first steps into formula 1 around the Spanish Jerez circuit.

Lets take a look at the action team by team:

McLaren played it smart by letting regular tester Gary Paffett (a British DTM driver for Mercedes) do most of the work. This was technically allowed as Gary hasn't had an F1 drive but he was the most experienced driver out there over the 3 days. This told as he set top 3 times on each day and probably provided McLaren with a lot of valuable feedback. A regular third driver seat beckons for Paffett if De La Rosa gets a drive with one of the new teams but I can't see anything more for him. Oliver Turvey also got a few laps as prize for being the Autosport young driver of the year - its too early to tell whether we'll see him again.

Mercedes ran with (former Honda protegee) Mike Conway and Japanese F3 driver Marcus Ericsson. Neither driver performed brilliantly although Conway was praised by Ross Brawn for his technical feedback. This seemed like a test to tie up some more of Honda's loose ends.

Red Bull kept the same driver throughout; Daniel Ricciardo. The British F3 champion is the newest kid from the Red Bull young driver programme and he seems to be a bit of a whizz - today he was fastest by over a second! Don't be suprised to see him pop up in a Toro Rosso for 2010.

Ferrari made the biggest headlines of the week by signing their tester. The F3 Euroseries champion Jules Bianchi has committed to the team and will follow a development programme similar to Felipe Massa. This kid MUST be good. Apparently he has flown through the lower ranks, sweeping all before him. Next year he finds himself in GP2 driving for ART (the current champions), if this goes well he will be driving a Sauber (with Ferrari engines) in 2011 and then the sky is the limit. Seriously he could be the guy to bring the championship back to France. 2014 F1 World Champion with Ferrari?

They also let the top three of the Italian F3 series loose with the F60 but none impressed that much.

Williams spotted the same loophole as McLaren and therefore used this as a chance to give 2010 driver Nico Hulkenberg a few days to settle into the team. Much is expected of this boy and you can see how a few days now means that they can hit the ground running when testing starts in earnest after Christmas. They also gave Andy Soucek his first taste of F1 on Tuesday. This was as a prize for winning the F2 championship. Soucek showed well and even topped the timesheets but he only had one day in the car and so we will never know if it was a flash in the pan or genuine pace. One for the future me thinks.

This is the last time we will see the current BMW team on the timesheets. Despite already pulling out of F1, the team honoured promises made to junior drivers Alexander Rossi and Esteban Gutierrez. Neither driver performed that well but at least they got their chance. Unfortunately I can't see them becomming household names anytime soon.

Renault let long time junior driver Lucas Di Grassi and Formula Renault champion Bertrand Baguette (what a name) test. They were generally at the lower end of the time sheets but Di Grassi is optimistic of a drive with one of the new teams. We could see him in a Campos or Virgin car next year.

The most important tests of the week were going on at Force India where there was effectively a shootout going on between DTM driver Paul Di Resta and American J.R. Hilderbrand for the third seat at the team next year. This is important because if Sutil leaves at the end of 2010 (or Liuzzi doesn't improve) then there is a good chance that the third drive will turn into a race drive over the course of the next two years. It was good news from a British perspective as (Scot) Di Resta produced the 2nd, 4th and 2nd fastest times respectively over the three days. This is much better than Hildebrand's 10th, 8th, 10th. What's more, the fact that Di Resta delivered those times in a Force India makes him my driver of the week and I hope to see him racing soon.

Finally, Toro Rosso used this test in a similar way to Force India but as there seems to be an endless line of Red Bull backed drivers I think that it'll be hard for either Brendon Hartley or Mirko Bortolotti to muscle their way onto the grid. 3rd seat at Toro Rosso beckons for one but I can't say who.

In other news, Sauber has had their place on the 2010 grid confirmed - it seems that the FIA didn't want to wait for Toyota and so the Japanese will have to pay the penalty.

Renault have made further strides towards a move away from F1 but I think that they'll only do so if they can find a buyer. If not then they might still be on the grid next year. I wonder what Kubica thinks of this; if Renault pull out then he could be in the frame at Mercedes...