Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, has admitted to being surprised by Jordan's decision to recruit two rookies for the 2005 season.

On Thursday, Jordan, bought out by Midland F1 the previous week, revealed that it had signed Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan for the forthcoming season. Although both have tested F1 cars, neither has raced one.

"I think to go in with two such green drivers is a mistake," Horner told Reuters. "Formula One is a totally different animal to any other formula.

Referring to his own team's decision to opt for experience, in the form of David Coulthard, the Englishman said; "The biggest asset that this team has is David. "He has spent 10 years in the sport and throughout that time with top teams, Williams and McLaren.

"The experience that he brings is invaluable at the end of the day, with regards to development and the way that the team operates, and that is obviously something that rookie drivers simply don't have."

Although Coulthard will lead Red Bull, it has yet to be decided who will partner him, the Austrian outfit having signed both Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

"There won't be a decision until very shortly before Melbourne," Horner admitted. "Both drivers are under long term contracts to the team and both are heavily involved in the test programme between now and Melbourne.

"Alex Ferguson wouldn't release his team sheet six weeks in advance," he added, referring to the Manchester United boss, "and the drivers are one of the smallest issues we have. We've got a very good driver line-up in David leading the team and two good youngsters."

Talking of inexperienced drivers, who was the youngster taken to a recent test, dumped in the car, without even a seat fitting, and on the instructions of a consultant to the team, ordered to drive? We hear that the team was stunned into silence by the incident, and the driver, who had had no time to prepare was shaken rigid.