Russian to test Midland car

MidlandF1 is aiming to have its first chassis on the test track by late summer this year and plans to have a Russian driver try it out. Roman Rusinov, the driver in question, raced in the Le Mans Endurance series in 2004 and won the GT title.

"We're planning to take an existing Russian driver, Roman Rusinov, to be one of Midland's F1 test drivers this year," Midland's Russian-born boss Alex Shnaider told the Toronto Star.

"Our car, the chassis, will be ready from Dallara at the end of the summer and he'll start testing that car. He might test the Jordan car before then but we haven't determined that yet."

Shnaider, now a Canadian citizen, hopes to bring more Russian drivers to F1 through the lower formulae. "We are planning to run a Midland Formula 3 team in the Euro series," he explained. "We will take some young Russian drivers and develop them through Formula 3 and then, if they're worthy, take them up to Formula One."

The take over of Jordan has apparently not altered Midland's plan to build its own F1 team from scratch, although Jordan will be renamed Midland from next year. The team recently announced that its drivers for this season will be Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro.

Neither has competed in F1 before and another newcomer, Red Bull's sporting director Christian Horner, is doubtful about the choice. "I think to go in with two such green drivers is a mistake," Horner told Reuters.