Grapevine: Panis to Swap Jobs with Race Engineer

British American Racing driver Oliver Panis will swap jobs with his race engineer David Lloyd at this weekend's Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch.

Frenchman Panis will be now watching the race from the pit wall while Lloyd, who started racing go-karts at the age of 14 before moving up the ranks to Formula Ford and Formula Vauxhall Lotus, will be behind the wheel. However, Panis, who will be in charge of the race strategy, admitted to his lack of experience.

"I have no experience of engineering at all and I have never seen a Formula Ford in my life," Panis admitted. "I'm not really sure what I'm going to be doing but I'm really happy to help David and some other people from the team. It will be good for me to push him because he's been pushing me so hard this season.

"I plan to play the big boss and stand there with a fat cigar shouting at David. I just hope everyone realises that we'll be doing this just to enjoy ourselves. We're not expecting to win or anything but who knows? I'm sure it's going to be hugely entertaining."

Lloyd joined BAR in December 1999, when he took over the role of race and test engineer for Ricardo Zonta, before starting to work alongside Panis this year.