Kiesa to Run Limited Testing This Week

Minardi's newly signed Danish star Nicolas Kiesa will run only 50 kilometres of testing this coming Friday and will have to make up the remaining 250kms-run, required for his Formula One Super-License, on the Friday morning testing of the German Grand Prix, the team told Atlas F1.

Kiesa was signed by the team to replace Briton Justin Wilson, who will be driving for Jaguar Racing for the rest of the season instead of sacked driver, Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia.

Kiesa, who was competing in the International F3000 championship with the Den Bla Avis team, has never driven a Formula One car before and will require a total of 300kms of testing in an F1 car to obtain a permission to race at the German Grand Prix.

Upon the announcement of his signing, Minardi team chief Paul Stoddart said he was planning to test Kiesa at Mugello this week, on Thursday and Friday, despite an agreed testing ban coming into force between last weekend's British Grand Prix and the Hungarian round in late August. Stoddart further said he planned to inform the other teams of his plans to ignore the testing ban - a ban which Minardi, having signed for the Friday testing option, is not a part of.

Nevertheless, it was agreed by all teams that the Friday testing teams - Minardi, Jaguar, Renault and Jordan - would abide by the ban and while Stoddart initially planned to test Kiesa despite the agreement, Minardi now said they have decided to uphold "what is essentially a gentlemen's agreement."

Instead, Kiesa will run only 50kms and will make up the remaining 250kms on Friday morning at Hockenheim.

"He's going to have to work hard, and he's going to be pretty tired by the end of it," team spokesman Graham Jones told Atlas F1. "But he's a professional and he knows what's waiting for him, and he's ready for it."

Earlier reports today in the Scandinavian press suggested Minardi failed to receive a unanimous agreement by all teams to test Kiesa this week, during the testing ban. According to these reports, Ferrari was the only team to object to the exemption, effectively blocking Minardi from testing Kiesa this week.

However, Jones flatly denied the reports and said Minardi did not need the teams' permission to begin with and had made the decision to abide to the 'gentlemen's agreement' without contacting the other teams for permission. Moreover, Jones said Ferrari have behaved quite the opposite than reported.

"[These reports] have got it completely wrong," Jones said. "Ferrari have been exactly the opposite - they have been very generous and helpful to us with this test. We have a very good relationship with them, and they invited us to be their guest on Friday. They didn't have to make that offer - but they did, and it's very helpful and good for us."

Jones said Ferrari, who own the Fiorano track, have made the circuit available for the team at no charge, which would allow the Faenza-based team to also run the newly signed test driver, Italian driver Gianmaria Bruni, for a few kilometres.