By Huw Alban
January 24 2006

It had already been rumoured in the German press, but today the team made it official. Markus Winkelhock has been signed by Midland F1 as 'one' of their test drivers The Official press release from Midland reads thus:

MF1Racing, the Formula 1 team owned and operated by the Midland Group, is today pleased to announce that 25-year-old Markus Winkelhock will be one of the team's official test drivers in 2006.

Winkelhock, son of the late Formula 1 and sports car driver Manfred Winkelhock, tested for MF1 Racing in Jerez in December and impressed Managing Director Colin Kolles with his talent and dtermination: 'Markus showed true class in the test before Christmas. He was immediately at home in a Formula 1 car and he will be a big asset to our development programme this year'.

As well as sharing testing duties with the team's race drivers, Stuttgart-based Markus will also participate in Midland's Grand Prix Friday driver line-up, the full details of which will be announced at a later date.

After finishing third in the 2005 World Series by Renault, Markus said his first F1 test was: 'an unforgettable experience. It gave me the hunger for more and this opportunity with Midland is fantastic for me. I know the team has a big development programme for the new MF1-Toyota M16 and I look forward to being constructively involved with it.'

Am I the only one to notice the wording in the very first sentence - "Markus Winkelhock will be one of the team's official test drivers" - just one of them ? Does this suggest that the team have more than one position open, or are they still in negotiation with another driver about an additional test role ?

We know that the team were very impressed with both Winkelhock and Rusinov at the Jerez test last year. Will all be revealed on the 3rd of Feb ?