By role
July 2 2003

For a couple of weeks now Frank Montagny has had the 4th of July well marked on his calendar. While Americans will be celebrating Independence Day, Frank Montagny will be hard at work to leave his mark in Formula 1. Montagny is set to be third driver at this weekend's GP and that means that he will be having 2 hours of testing early Friday morning.

Friday's private testing session is quite important for the Renault team. Due to the signature of the Heathrow Agreement Renault has limited testing time in between races and therefore they have to use as much as possible the available time on Friday morning.

Due to the great form that Montagny is showing in the Telefonica World Series in which he has won 6 out of 8 races against rivals like Marc Gené and Enrique Bernoldi, renault has decided to give the chance to test for them to the young Frenchman.

Montagny is obviously thrilled at the chance of driving together with racing drivers Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso:

"I’m feeling very good: it’s going to be a special moment. The fact that I am only doing two hours’ running means I have to get to grips with everything quickly: you might call it an enjoyable challenge. Having said that, it’s a shame that I won’t be driving for the whole day, because it would allow me to take a break, and then get back fresher on track, and ready to attack properly. Even so, it’s a fantastic opportunity, and I hope it all goes well!" He said.

Is Montagny apprehensive to run with so limited time in front of the entire F1 pasddock?

"From my point of view as a driver, not at all. This will be my first run in the R23, and I am viewing it as a first test. If there is any pressure, it is on the team as a whole, as this session is traditionally used for tyre preparation for the race, and it must be hard for them to entrust that to a young driver. It proves the confidence they have in me, which is another reason to be relaxed!" He concluded.

many eyes will be set on the young French driver and he surely will want to impress as many eyes as possible.