Rossi to test with Lotus in Abu Dhabi

Alexander Rossi will test for Lotus in Abu Dhabi at the upcoming Young Driver Test.

The 20-year-old American finished third in the Formula Renault 3.5 championship this year and has previous F1 experience with BMW at the 2009 Young Driver Test. Ahead of his Lotus test Rossi will also drive for Team AirAsia, which is owned by Lotus boss Tony Fernandes, in the GP2 final at the Yas Marina.

"I am very excited to finally announce I will be competing in Abu Dhabi with Caterham Team AirAsia and will have the chance to put more F1 miles on my CV with Team Lotusk," Rossi said. "After the positive GP2 tests in Jerez and Barcelona I feel we have a good chance of a strong result in the GP2 races and I will definitely be going into the weekend fully focused and motivated for a race win - looking at the team's past results I see no reason why we can't achieve that. For the F1 test I will be looking to learn as much as possible, do the best job I can and soak up every minute, in and out of the car."

Lotus CEO and Team Air Asia team principal Riad Asmat added: "We are very excited to have Alexander Rossi back onboard for the Abu Dhabi GP2 race and the subsequent F1 test. He worked very well with the GP2 team during the tests in Spain and it will be great to continue that working relationship in addition to giving him more exposure to the F1 environment with Team Lotus. He has shown maturity and confidence on track so the decision to put him in the car for the GP2 finale was a simple one to make and we want to give him the chance to experience the pressure of an F1 environment so the young driver test is the natural place to give him that chance. We are all looking forward to both events and I am sure he will perform to the best of his ability whenever he is on track."

The Young Driver Test will take place the week after this year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from November 15 to 17 and will give drivers with less than three grands prix of experience a chance to drive a contemporary F1 car. Also confirmed to take part in the test so far are Jean-Eric Vergne at Red Bull, Jules Bianchi at Ferrari, Sam Bird at Mercedes, Mirko Bortolotti at Williams having won the F2 championship, Fabio Leimer at Sauber, Stefano Coletti at Toro Rosso and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs at Virgin.

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