Teams to try out drivers at Estoril

Much attention will focus on Arden Team Russia, which will use the two-day sessions to compare Darren Manning, its driver of the past two seasons, with French ace Sebastien Bourdais. Manning had a disappointing season, but is hoping to prove quicker than the highly-rated Bourdais to convince Arden to take him into a third season.

F3000's top two teams from this year will also be evaluating drivers. Nordic Racing, which won the F3000 title with Justin Wilson this season, has signed Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner for 2002. He will run in his second test for the team, having impressed earlier this month at Barcelona. Swiss driver Joel Camathias is also due to run with Nordic, while champion Wilson will get a taste of Lola's new F3000 car (for the full story click here).

Super Nova will try out young Briton Michael Bentwood, who is looking to step up to the international championship following a season racing in the Euro F3000 series.

Macau Formula 3 pole winner Bjorn Wirdheim will test for the Italian Durango team, while a host of lesser known hopefuls will attempt to impress, as the majority of outfits turn out to weigh up who to sign for 2002.

From Estoril, the teams will move on to Barcelona for the second official test on December 4/5.

Autosport.com will carry reports from Estoril at the end of each day.