Brit stars in BAR shoot-out

The nine-man group also included sons of former World Champions Nico Rosberg and Nelson Piquet Jr and all are under consideration for a test role with BAR in 2005.

Carroll, Rossiter and Piquet, who were all stars of the 2004 British F3 Championship Rosberg, were joined by Brazilian Danilo Dirani - also a British F3 winner this year and European F3 stars Rosberg and Alexandre Premat.

From outside F3 came Dallara-Nissan drivers Heikki Kovalainen (this year's champion) and Alan van der Merwe (Piquet's predecessor as British F3 champion), plus F3000 driver and 2003 Formula Renault V6 champion Jose Maria Lopez.

The drivers all took part in a series of physical, mental and verbal tests and drove road cars on the Bruntingthorpe test track to demonstrate their skills behind the wheel. The tests, held last week, were designed to assess their suitability for the modern F1 environment.

Outgoing BAR boss David Richards told Motorsport news: "I think that we have a lot of talented British drivers, but getting to the next stage is the difficult bit. Jock Clear has been heading this up and it has been done in a very professional manner. The aim is to find the right drivers for the future and it will bear fruit very shortly."

BAR is expected to move on to test one or more of the drivers in an F1 car and a decision on who is to graduate to the next stage is expected shortly.

Fresh from his win in the Macau Grand prix, Premat commented: "They tested us on a lot of things. Maybe it could lead to a test drive with the team but no-one knows yet."