Robert Wickens will drive for Virgin during Friday’s first free practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the team have confirmed.
The Canadian recently won the Formula Renault 3.5 series with Carlin by nine points over his teammate, Jean Eric-Vergne.
The 22-year-old has previously driven the MVR-02 during a straight-line test in September at the Vairano circuit. He will sit in for Jerome d’Ambrosio, who is speculated to be losing his seat next season, possibly to Wickens who has the backing of the teams majority shareholder, Marussia.
“I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to test with the team in a race weekend context and at a track like Abu Dhabi,” said Wickens. “This year just keeps getting better and better and I can’t thank Marussia enough for their continued support.
“The Vairano test was a good grounding for me but the opportunity to kick things up a gear in a free practice session is obviously the next big step in my career and I hope my feedback will have a positive benefit on the team’s performance there.”
Team boss John Booth added: “Robert has had a fantastic season in Formula Renault 3.5 and was the deserving victor of a hard-fought championship,” said Booth.
“One of the founding principles of our young driver programme was that we would reward success with important seat time to aid the progression of our rising stars through the ranks.
“Abu Dhabi is a track at which Jerome has good experience as he ran there in the same Friday morning practice session a year ago and then in the young driver test the following week. The Yas Marina circuit therefore presents a better opportunity to provide this reward to Robert as there will be less impact on our engineering programme.”
