Dixon to Test for Williams Next Week

New Zealand's Indy Racing League (IRL) champion Scott Dixon will test for the Williams Formula One team next week, the BBC reported today.

Williams are looking for a replacement for Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, who joins McLaren next year, and possibly Germany's Ralf Schumacher as well.

The BBC quoted team sources as saying Williams wanted to evaluate the 23-year-old's potential at a test at the Le Castellet circuit in southern France before a second run in Spain in April.

There was no official confirmation from Williams but an announcement was expected to be made by Dixon's Ganassi team in the United States on Thursday.

Team boss Frank Williams told Reuters at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix this month that the team were in touch with Dixon, who has raced on oval circuits for the last two years.

"We've obviously got to fill Juan's place and we look at every single name who's possible. It could be 50 names," he said at the time.

Dixon drives in IRL for Chip Ganassi, whose team has had close ties to Williams since Italian Alex Zanardi moved to Formula One from CART in 1999, and has also been linked to Toyota.

Montoya was a Williams test driver before he moved to America and won the 1999 CART title and 2000 Indianapolis 500 with Ganassi's team.

Ganassi also signed Williams test driver Bruno Junqueira after the Brazilian lost out to Button in a 2000 shoot-out for a race seat with Williams.

The last New Zealander to race in Formula One was Mike Thackwell, still the youngest driver ever to start a race, who made his debut in Canada in 1980 aged 19 years and five months. That was his only grand prix appearance.

Before him there was Chris Amon, who made 96 starts with teams including Ferrari, Lotus and Matra, the late McLaren founder Bruce McLaren and 1967 world champion Denny Hulme.