Pedro de la Rosa has secured his previous role as test and reserve driver for McLaren-Mercedes after failing to secure a race seat for the 2011 season.
The Spaniard joined McLaren in 2003, staying with the team for seven seasons before leaving in 2010 to join Sauber.
At the end of 2010, De la Rosa joined Pirelli to help them develop their new F1 tyres, gaining knowledge which may prove very fruitful in developing the MP4-26.
“Of all the teams I’ve driven for in F1, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is the one that really feels like home,” said Pedro. “So I’m very excited about returning to the team to help push the development of the MP4-26.
“Lewis and Jenson already have an extremely positive and productive working relationship – so, building on and adding to their existing rapport, I’m aiming to do everything I can to help them get even more from our car, our engineers and our technical resources back at the McLaren Technology Centre.”
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh expressed his pleasure in seeing De la Rosa return to his ‘home’ team.
“I know I speak for all my colleagues when I say that I’m delighted that Pedro has chosen to return to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
“He rejoins us with even greater experience, and his motivation and attention to detail remain as sharp as ever. His recruitment adds considerable strength in depth to our driver line-up,” he added.
“With two world champion race drivers in Lewis and Jenson, and two of the world’s most experienced and capable development drivers in Pedro and Gary [Paffet], we feel we have a quartet of talent that is absolutely second-to-none.”
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