Minardi to test 11 drivers

With Paul Stoddart's 2004 regulars Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner still trying to raise the budgets that will allow them to continue in F1 next year, the team has decided to call on a wealth of rising talent for an evaluation test.

Stoddart has agreed to provide two PS04s for the two two-day tests at Misano in Italy, scheduled to run on November 22nd to 23rd and the 25th to 26th. On the day in between Minardi will host a day dedicated to its fans with rides in its popular F1x2 two seaters.

The main interest at the test is likely to be Japanese F3 champion Ronnie Quintarelli, who will be getting his first test in F1 machinery, and Portugal's Tiago Monteiro who tested for Minardi last year and is looking to graduate from the Nissan World Series.

Apart from Monteiro and Quintarelli, the test will also feature Australian duo Will Power and Will Davison, French GT driver Olivier Maximin, Asian F3 driver Enzo Pastor, Renault V6 champion Giorgio Mondini, Renault V6 drivers Christian Montanari and Damien Pasini, plus Euro F3 championship front-runner Robert Kubica.

The test will make a bit of motor racing history for Minardi as Pastor and Kubica will be the first Filipino and Polish drivers respectively to test F1 cars.

Apart from the rising youngsters, Russian veteran Sergey Zlobin will continue his testing program thanks to the sponsorship backing of a Russian bank.