D’Ambrosio joins Virgin Racing as Friday driver

The Virgin Racing F1 Team is pleased to announce that it has signed rising talent Jerome D’Ambrosio in an evaluation role for four of the remaining five race weekends of the 2010 season. Jerome will take part in the first free practice session on Friday mornings at the Singapore, Japanese, Korean and Brazilian Grands Prix and the team will be using this opportunity to evaluate Jerome’s potential. Jerome will join existing long term reserve driver Luis Razia who continues in his role supporting the Virgin Racing F1 Team.

The 25 year old Belgian will run in car number 25 for the 90 minute opening session, alongside Timo Glock, before handing over the reins to Lucas di Grassi for the remainder of the race weekend.

In addition, Virgin Racing will run Jerome at the young driver test sessions taking place in Abu Dhabi following the conclusion of the season finale.

Jerome has spent the last four seasons competing in the GP2 Series, prior to which he raced in the GP2 Asia series. International Formula Master, the F3000 Euroseries and Formula Renault. Alongside his 2010 GP2 commitments he has also held the role of Reserve and Test Driver for the Renault F1 Team.

Jerome commented: “My ultimate goal has always been to race in Formula 1 and I am delighted to get a step closer. I wish to thank Virgin Racing and Gravity Sport Management for their confidence. I won’t disappoint them. This drive is a fantastic opportunity and I am looking forward to helping the team in every way I can, as well as gaining experience on four of the most demanding tracks of the F1 calendar. Looking at the 2011 season, this will be very useful. Also, I will be very proud to wear the Belgian colours on my helmet during these official practice sessions, as it means a lot to me.”

Graeme Lowdon, CEO of Virgin Racing, commented: “We are very pleased to welcome Jerome to Virgin Racing and we look forward to providing him with the opportunity to drive the VR-01 during the first free practice session of the next four race weekends. He will also take part in our young driver test in Abu Dhabi at the end of the season. We have a contract with Timo Glock for another two years and an option on the services of Lucas di Grassi for next year. Both drivers have done an outstanding job for us in our debut season. We are always looking to progress new racing talent and the team out of which Virgin Racing was born has a long history of this. Jerome is a real racer and very deserving of this opportunity. We are looking forward to evaluating his performance with effect from next weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix. With both Jerome and Luis supporting the Team, we have two drivers with enormous future potential.”