Scottish rookie gets four days of testing

McLaren are running the rule of 22-year-old Scot Paul Di Resta. The West Lothian youngster, cousin of Dario Franchitti, is testing today and tomorrow at Silverstone, and will be given a second bite of the cherry later this month. Di Resta will not be given a drive for next season given that Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen have confirmed they will stay on, but he could become Di Testa (ho, ho!).

Di Resta has been brought into McLaren’s Young Driver programme which exempts him from the usual limits on team testing. He is currently racing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) series for Mercedes. He came fifth in 2007 in his debut season in the DTM despite not being given a 2007 spec car. He has previously raced in the Euroseries championship, where Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were also blooded.