Burti confirms Ferrari test deal

The Brazilian, whose grand prix career was blighted by a major crash during the Belgian GP at Spa in 2001, says he is happy to remain associated with the world champion outfit. His main duties are likely to concern tyre development with Bridgestone.

"I've just renewed my contract," said Burti. "It's my second year in the team. While the team is happy with myself and I'm happy with the team, the idea is to stay working together. The plan for this year is very similar to last year because we had quite a busy programme with a lot of kilometres of testing, and we saw that the result in the end was very good. We managed to really develop the car, the tyres and we managed to achieve the results. The plan is to keep doing a good job and to have a similar programme."

Burti insists that his testing role is more rewarding than a race seat with a lesser team.

"Of course, I do miss the racing side a lot," he admitted. "But at the same time I feel quite happy with Ferrari because I can be happy going to the track. I know that I will enjoy myself a lot driving a very good car, to be doing proper work, while if you race with a medium-to-small team you don't enjoy it any more. That was the situation when I was racing in 2001, I was not enjoying going to the track any more, and that's the worse thing that can happen, so at least now I feel quite happy about my job."