Dalziel signs up with RC Motorsport

The Scot believes the Italian team can challenge for the title this season, thanks to its works deal with Opel. In its rookie season last year, the team won one race with ex-Formula Ford champion Nicolas Kiesa.

"I think they did an awesome job last year," said Dalziel. "If they can get those kind of results in their first year, just think what I can achieve with them in their second. F3 is all about having a good car and a good engine. We will be the only Opel powered team on the grid which puts us in a really strong position."

Dalziel's team-mate has yet to be signed, but he's looking forward to the Italian culture of the outfit.

"I'm going to have to teach them some Scottish," he said. "A couple of them hardly speak any English, but it's not going to be a problem. We've got a busy test schedule when the ban lifts in February, but I've had quite a few runs in F3 cars and they all went well. Every car I drove I was on the pace of their regular drivers."

A multiple McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award nominee, Dalziel has no chip on his shoulder about Raikkonen's meteoric rise to Formula 1 with Sauber for 2001.

"He obviously did a good job last year," he added. "He didn't fire it off and he won the races. The guy's ballistic in the first couple of laps of a race, but I don't know if that'll help him when he's got tyre warmers in F1. If he does the job in the races that he's been doing in testing, then you can't fault the guy. Now he's gone straight to F1, I want to catch him up!"