17/04/2010
NEWS STORY
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Hispania Racing has signed Japanese driver Sakon Yamamoto as its official test driver and reserve race driver for the remainder of the 2010 season.
Yamamoto got his first taste of F1 in 2005, as the Friday test driver for Jordan at the Japanese Grand Prix. He continued racing in Formula Nippon and Super GT series in 2006 but also earned a full-time F1 race drive with the Super Aguri F1 Team. The following year he contested the GP2 Series while testing for Super Aguri and also racing for the Spyker F1 Team from the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards. In 2008, he joined the Renault F1 team's driver development programme while continuing to race in GP2 and the GP2 Asia series where he also continued racing in 2009.
"I am very pleased to be joining the HRT F1 Team," said Yamamoto. "It is fantastic to be part of a new team and I hope I will be able to gather useful data whenever possible on Friday for the race drivers. I have seen how committed everyone at the team is and I feel the same. I will be doing my very best to support Karun and Bruno this year. I'm proud to work with this Spanish team, because Spain is like my second home as I also live in Barcelona."
Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal, HRT F1 Team: "It's a great pleasure for us to have signed Sakon as our test and reserve race driver for the 2010 season. I am confident that his input into the development of our car will be useful and means another reinforcement of our team as the European season starts in Barcelona. We look forward to welcoming Sakon to the team and working closely with him. His addition makes HRT F1 Team one of the most international teams in the paddock."