The Sauber team has signed 38 year old Pedro de la Rosa to partner with Kamui Kobayashi for their 2010 season.
Pedro dropped off the face of the F1 map some 7 years ago when he signed up as McLaren’s test/reserve driver. During that time he competed in 9 races for the silver arrows. Famously, 8 of those 9 races were in the 2006 season after the USGP where Juan Pablo Montoya ran over teammate Kimi Raikonnen and then retreated to NASCAR.
Before signing with McLaren in 2003, Pedro had stints with Jordan, Prost, Arrows and Jaguar as both a test driver and a race driver. All told his F1 career has lasted since 1998 in which time he has competed in 72 F1 grands prix, garnering 29 points.
Sauber is definitely gaining an experienced veteran who is capable of helping set up a car for his young hotshoe teammate. Unfortunately, I doubt Pedro will fare very well against Kamui though. There is a distinct reason why he has spent so many seasons as a test driver.
Anyway, here is the driver breakdown for the upcoming season. All seats are spoken for except a single vacant seat at Renault, Torro Rosso and Campos, and both vacant seats at USF1.
Team | Driver #1 | Driver #2 |
---|---|---|
McLaren | Jenson Button | Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes GP | Nico Rosberg | Michael Schumacher |
Red Bull | Sebastian Vettel | Mark Webber |
Ferrari | Felipe Massa | Fernando Alonso |
Williams | Rubens Barrichello | Nico Hulkenberg |
Renault | Robert Kubica | TBA |
Force India | Adrian Sutil | Vitantonio Liuzzi |
Torro Rosso | Sebastian Buemi | TBA |
Lotus | Jarno Trulli | Heikki Kovalainen |
Campos | TBA | Bruno Senna |
USF1 | TBA | TBA |
Virgin | Timo Glock | Lucas Di Grassi |
Sauber | Pedro de la Rossa | Kamui Kobayashi |