2007 Reserve & Development Drivers
| link |
helmet |
Test Driver |
Nationality |
Team |
 |
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 |
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Pedro de la Rosa  1 |
Spain |
McLaren |
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Gary Paffet |
Great Britain (England) |
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes |
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Ricardo Zonta |
Brazil |
Renault |
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Nelson A. Piquet 2 |
Brazil |
ING Renault F1 Team |
|
 |
Luca Badoer |
Italy |
Ferrari |
|
 |
Marc Gené |
Spain |
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro |
|
 |
Christian Klien 3 |
Austria |
Honda |
|
 |
James Rossiter |
Great Britain (England) |
Honda Racing F1 Team |
|
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Sebastian Vettel 4 |
Germany |
BMW Sauber |
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Timo Glock-? |
Germany |
BMW Sauber F1 Team |
|
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Franck Montagny 5 |
France |
Toyota |
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Kamui Kobayashi 6 |
Japan |
Panasonic Toyota Racing |
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Robert Doornbos-? |
Netherlands |
Red Bull |
| • |
 |
second driver-? |
-? |
Red Bull Racing |
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Narain Karthikeyan |
India |
Williams |
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Kazuki Nakajima 7 |
Japan |
AT&T Williams |
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 |
Neel Jani-? |
Switzerland |
Toro Rosso |
| • |
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second driver-? |
-? |
Scuderia Toro Rosso |
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Adrian Sutil-? 8 |
Germany |
Spyker |
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Giorgio Mondini-? 9 |
Switzerland |
Spyker F1 Team |
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Giedo van der Garde 10 |
Netherlands |
Super Aguri |
| • |
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second driver-? |
-? |
Super Aguri F1 Team |
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Link to driver's homepage. Links to the teams' & other F1-related homepages are available here.
-? Seats yet to be officially announced.
1 Pedro de la Rosa was promoted to Juan Pablo Montoya's race seat at Magny-Cours, 2006. Although then Team test driver Pedro de la Rosa had initially been announced as Montoya's replacement at McLaren, just for the foreseeable future, the Spaniard ended up racing for the remaining of the 2006 Season. Gary Paffet, the McLaren Team other test driver, and a successful racer in DTM, had at first seemed to be in line for sharing the vacant seat; but he was somehow not considered for the job. So De la Rosa raced through the remaining of the season.
2 Nelson Ângelo Piquet, the son of three-time F1 World Champion Nelson Piquet, joins F1 as Renault's junior test-driver, but he is actually the team's race reserve-driver for the 2007 Season. Nelsinho Piquet (as he is usually called in Brazil) enters F1 carrying a number of achievements in his luggage, such as 2006 GP2 series runner-up, 2004 British F3 Champion, and 2002 South American F3 Champion.
3 Christian Klien raced for Red Bull, in 2006, losing his seat to then reserve driver Robert Doornbos, in the last three races of the 2006 Season, as Klien chose to be released from the Red Bull sponsorship he had enjoyed for a number of years, so that he could avoid a forceful switch to the American Champ Cars series. In order to be able to stay within the F1 context, Klien chose to join the Honda team as their senior test-driver as well as reserve-driver in 2007.
4 Sebastian Vettel was BMW Sauber's test and reserve driver, for the final five races, in 2006, following Robert Kubika's promotion to Jacques Villeneuve's racing seat. Vettel was also the 2006 runner-up in the Formula 3 Euro Series. In addition to his duties at the BMW Sauber Team, in 2007, Vettel will be driving for Carlin Motorsport, in the World Series by Renault. Though his 2006 success would more likely mean that Vettel should be moving on to G2 racing, the young German promise has opted for the World Series competition in order to be able to take his job with BMW, in F1 (GP2 racing coincides with F1 racing). Still, a couple of dates will be clashing, in 2007—the F1 GPs of Bahrain and Italy, and the WSR races in Monza and Donington Park (in April and September, respectively)—opportunities when perhaps Timo Glock would be taking over his fellow countryman's duties at BMW.
5 Franck Montagny, Toyota's test and reserve driver for 2007, was working at the new Super Aguri Team, in 2006. He joined the Team as their test driver, but was promoted to Yuji Ide's race seat at the Nürbürgring (2006), becaming the 67th French driver in F1 racing, & the first to line up since Olivier Panis retired from racing, after the 2004 GP of Japan. Then 
Sakon Yamamoto (initially the team's test driver, when Montagny took over the racing duties) was promoted to Franck Montagny's race seat at Hockenheim (2006). Sakon Yamamoto was 
Yuji Ide's Japanese replacement at the Super Aguri team—due to sponsorship-related issues—after Franck Montagny had filled in the seat for seven GP's. Yuji Ide, in turn, had been the team's original second driver, having started the 2006 Season alongside Takuma Sato. Ide raced just up to the San Marino Grand Prix, being then relocated to a test role, exclusively. Finally, shortly before the Spanish GP, as his superlicence was withdrawn by the FIA, Ide would no longer raced or tested for the Super Aguri team, this Season.
6 Kamui Kobayashi won the Rookie-Cup in the 2006 Formula 3 Euroseries, the Rookie of the Year also taking pole at the 2006 F3 Macau Grand Prix. Kobayashi has moreover been chosen by Toyota as their young Japanese talent (from Toyota's Young Drivers Program) to participate in F1 tests, in 2007. While performing second test-driver's duties at Toyota, Kobayashi will be racing in the 2007 Euro Series, for the successful ASM F3 team, 2006 winners not only of the championship title, with Paul di Resta, but also of the runner-up honors, with Sebastian Vettel.
7 Kazuki Nakajima, who has likewise been part of Toyota's Young Drivers Program, is Satoru Nakajima's 21-year old son. Satoru raced for Tyrrel and Lotus, in the 80's and 90's. Kazuki, in turn, has won the Formula Toyota and the Japanese F-3 Titles. Along with his F1 testing duties, Kazuki Nakajima will also be taking part in the 2007 GP2 series championship—racing on the DAMS team. The young Nakajima being Toyota's protégé, he has most likely been hired as Williams' second test driver, because of the Williams Team's new partnership with Toyota as their engine supplier.
8 Adrian Sutil, was the sixth German driver to be involved with F1 in 2006. He joined the then MF1 Racing Team as their junior driver, in 2006 and is likely to be the driver chosen for both reserve and testing duties at the Spyker F1 Racing Team, in 2007. In 2006, Sutil conquered the Japanese Formula 3 Title and finished third in the traditional Formula 3 GP of Macau.
9 Giorgio Modini was the second Swiss driver to join F1 in 2006. He joined the then MF1 Racing Team as their reserve driver for nine of the nineteen Grand Prix, in 2006. His services, however, are likely not to be needed in 2007, at the Spyker F1 Racing Team.
10 Giedo van der Garde has been competing in the Formula 3 Euro Series since 2004, after a year (2003) in the Dutch Formula Renault 2000. His main achievement so far has been to win the karting World Championship (Formula Super A, in 2002). Van der Garde has been part of the McLaren young driver support program. Incidentally, he is also known to be a protégé of former Dutch F1 driver 
Jos Verstappen .
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