Minardi Team USA has announced that Zsolt Baumgartner has been appointed official test and reserve driver for the 2007 season.

The 26-year old Hungarian racer, who previously competed for Minardi in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship, will join Dutch driver, Robert Doornbos, for the two-day Champ Car World Series Spring Training session, at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, commencing today. He will also be present at the majority of Champ Car weekends this season.

Baumgartner is best known to American audiences for having scored the hard-trying Minardi F1 Team's sole World Championship point of the 2004 season, at that year's United States Grand Prix. He has continued to be a regular driver for the team's exciting two-seater program since that time.

"I'm very happy to continue my relationship with Paul Stoddart and Minardi, by taking on this new role as test and reserve driver for Minardi Team USA," says Zsolt. "I'm looking forward both to experiencing the new Panoz DP01 Champ Car for the first time, here at Laguna Seca, and to learning more about the North American racing scene during the course of the 2007 season. I'm sure it will be an interesting and exciting year, and I'm really looking forward to it."

Minardi Team USA Co-owner, Paul Stoddart, comments, "Aside from being an excellent race and test driver, Zsolt has been one of the real stalwarts of the Minardi two-seater program, and it therefore makes perfect sense to involve him in our North American plans as official test and reserve driver for the Champ Car team. He's a great ambassador for us, and we're very pleased to have him along at the start of Minardi Team USA's Champ Car adventure. I'm sure he will make a strong contribution to all our programs this season."