Tony Kanaan to test drive the BAR 007

Ed · Post by Ed » Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:40 pm

The BAR Honda team announced today that reigning Indy Racing League champion, Tony Kanaan, will test drive the BAR 007 at Jerez next week.

This oppurtunity is in recognition of Kanaan's acheivements in IRL in 2004.

At this stage it appears to be a one-off test however if Kanaan impresses then more tests would follow.

Full BAR Honda Statement

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 2:37 am

From the North American Motorsports category, best wishes to Kanaan when he heads over to Jerez for his test session in the BAR 007. Whether anything follows will depend on two things:1--how Kanaan does in his test session, and 2--whether BAR-Honda has settled on their driver lineup for 2006(currently only Rubens Barrichello is signed for 2006, and it's still unsure if Jenson Button can "wiggle" out of his contract option with Williams-F1).

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 9:36 am

mlittle wrote:From the North American Motorsports category, best wishes to Kanaan when he heads over to Jerez for his test session in the BAR 007. Whether anything follows will depend on two things:1--how Kanaan does in his test session, and 2--whether BAR-Honda has settled on their driver lineup for 2006(currently only Rubens Barrichello is signed for 2006, and it's still unsure if Jenson Button can "wiggle" out of his contract option with Williams-F1).

F1Racing has stated that Button will be released to BAR-Honda for a payment of 25 million pounds to Williams, leaving Sato to find another seat, or test for BAR. Anthony Davidson has been linked, by them, with Midland. Maybe Bar are looking at 2007.

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 9:57 am

Could be, julian. Of course, this reminds me of when 2003 IRL series champion Scott Dixon was given a test session by Williams in mid-2003. The test went well, by all accounts....but Dixon's still here in North America, though. As for Sato....there are reports here in the States'(the most notable being from autoracing1.com) that Sato could be headed over here for a possible ChampCar ride, but that's still unconfirmed for the moment.

All I can say is...it's going to be a pretty interesting silly season in F1 this off-season.