Conquest snatch Zwolsman

The Dutchman had been linked with HVM, Rocketsports and Dale Coyne Racing too, but he said Conquest are the best option for him.

"I am delighted to be with Conquest," he told autosport.com. "This is a good opportunity for me to be with a team that has shown encouraging form with rookies in the past - Justin Wilson, Andrew Ranger and Nelson Philippe."

Zwolsman made his Champ Car debut in the 2005 season finale in Mexico City in a third Team Australia car, but he said this had little bearing on his impressive performance testing for Conquest in December.

Zwolsman said: "Apart from being a nice opportunity, and giving me an idea of how physical these cars are to drive, in fact it didn't help much in my Conquest test because the cars felt very different, especially in terms of tyres.

"I think we were running a different Bridgestone compound and the track conditions were much cooler too."

Eric Bachelart, team-owner of Conquest Racing, nonetheless says it was this test that convinced him Zwolsman was suitable candidate for the team. "It was a good test, and Charles worked hard," He said. "He gave good feedback and he fitted into the team environment very well.

"To be honest, I was not that surprised it went well though, because he had proved he was good at adapting by his performances in Atlantics. He came out of F3 Euroseries and only arrived in Atlantics at the last minute.

"Then he went and took three wins and five poles at circuits he'd never seen before and won the title. So Charles fits in nicely with our tradition of working with talented young rookies."

Zwolsman said it was too early to make predictions regarding his expectations this year. "Obviously it will help that I know which way the track goes at a lot of the races this year, although I have never raced on an oval before, so Milwaukee will be a big challenge.

"So it's still difficult to know where we stand in terms of competitiveness - I haven't tested since December - but hopefully we can cause some surprises throughout the season."