Bjorn Wirdheim

Last year at Imola Bjorn Wirdheim scored a superb victory in the Formula 3000 race, setting up a successful title challenge that was spoiled only by his infamous brain fade at Monaco, where he celebrated too early and gave away victory.

His dominance of a competitive series created a lot of interest in the F1 paddock. After clinching the title the Swede had a run as Jordan's Friday test driver at Indianapolis, and also tested for BAR, a team which has close links with Arden, whose boss Christian Horner doubles as Bjorn's manager.

There was no vacancy at BAR, and the only way into Jordan was with bags of cash, and despite his obvious potential it looked like Wirdheim might struggle to find work in Europe in 2004.

However, at a relatively late stage he popped up as a candidate for the third seat at Jaguar. Ironically the man he pipped to the job was his F3000 team mate Townsend Bell, who had given up his 2004 Arden deal to chase the Jag job.

It's a strange world when the reigning F3000 champ takes the third seat and an F3 graduate with far less experience actually gets to race, but Christian Klien's backing ensures that he has priority. Wirdheim's role is to spend Friday testing tyres and provide input that will help Klien and Mark Webber through the rest of the weekend. But at the same time he has to try to show everyone what he can do, and that means the world at large as much as the Jag team itself.

Anthony Davidson has already made a big impression with his Friday work at BAR. It's not an easy job for Bjorn, however, for his programme does not always encourage quick times, and unlike Davidson he still has relatively few F1 miles under his belt. Furthermore, the Jag team is stretched to its limits by running three cars on one day.

"It's nice to be quick," says Wirdheim, "but I don't always have the chance to be quick because I'm tyre testing and so on. But at the same time the team is aware of the situation, and they know pretty much how quick I am compared to the other drivers. So it's not a big problem."

So is it more a case of him demonstrating his knowledge and what he can do in terms of feedback rather than the lap time?

"Not really. That's a crucial factor as well, but lap time is definitely important. I'm going to be doing some testing in between the races as well, so that will help."

Inevitably Bjorn is hoping that he might follow Ricardo Zonta, Luciano Burti and Marc Gene and actually get to race if one of the regulars is indisposed.

"I know it can happen, and that's why I'm here! Something unexpected can always happen."

Imola is the first circuit that Bjorn knows, so he will be on the pace earlier and thus able to contribute more. One advantage the Friday testers have over everyone else is that they can do a lot of laps and go hard from the start, as engine failures have no consequences. Showing well in the first session can make people take notice.

After a shaky start Christian Klien seems to be finding his feet, and in any case the chances of Bjorn performing his way into the Austrian's seat this year are slim. It remains to be seen whether he has any kind of long-term future with Jaguar. Is he trying to use his current job as a stepping stone?

"I want it to be a stepping stone," he says. "But it's difficult to say, really. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next year. I'm just focussing on this year, and trying to do my best."