Montmeló preview: 3 seats left

At this second test we have 1 more seat officially filled.  Nelson Panciatici has been confirmed according to Italiaracing by Durango.  He will now officially drive with this team after the test held 2 weeks ago at Paul Ricard.  I wonder about Panciatici’s budget, but drivers with at least a partial budget (€400-500k) now find themselves in a good bargaining position to sit in a GP2 car for the 2009 Main Series season.

This leaves only the 2 seats at Trident and 1 seat at DPR pending an official driver confirmation.  For the Montmeló test, DPR is showing up with James Jakes, a well-funded driver coming off a dismal F3 Euroseries season (13th place, 1 win) who is also contesting the GP2 Asia Series, but with Super Nova.

Meanwhile Trident will repeat with Davide Rigon, who will hopefully begin to perform in GP2, and incorporates Angolan driver Ricardo Teixeira, backed by national oil firm Sonangol.   Not sure what is going on behind the scenes at the Milanese team, but when Hamad Al Fardan seemed a sure bet, another emerging-market driver comes along.  No doubt Salvadori’s team is looking to make some income from the pre-seasontests, given the signing of a funded driver seems more remote every day.  My guess is a Teixeria-Al Fardan lineup would be a saviour for Trident, though just in the short-term since it would condemn them to the bottom of the team standings and significantly lower their “status” in the category.  2009 will be a long season for Trident and its already shaky finances.