Albers gets Minardi test chance.

European Minardi has confirmed that Dutchman Christijan Albers will join the team when it tests at Mugello this coming week.

The 22-year-old comes with impressive credentials, having won the German Formula Three Championship in 1999, followed by a successful season of competition in the FIA International F3000 Championship with European Formula Racing in 2000. This year, he is a member of the official Mercedes squad participating in the DTM.

"We have known Christijan for several years and rate him highly as a talented young racing driver," commented team principal Paul Stoddart, "Now that the Formula One teams are back in Europe, our testing programme can begin in earnest. We have a considerable amount of work to get through as quickly as possible, so we asked Christijan to help us out on Wednesday. Needless to say, he didn't have to be asked twice!"

Albers will join regular European Minardi F1 drivers, Tarso Marques and Fernando Alonso, at Mugello as work begins on unlocking the full potential of the team's neat, and promising, PS01 chassis.

"It was my birthday yesterday, and this is the best present I could have," said Albers, "I am very excited at the prospect of helping European Minardi at this test. I know many of the people on the team already from my time with them in Formula 3000. For sure, it will be a huge challenge to get to grips with the performance of a current Formula One car, and hopefully provide some useful feedback to the engineers, but it's a challenge I can't wait to take on."