Jamie Whincup impressed McLaren last week when he swapped cars with Jenson Button at Albert Park - so much so that he might now get a chance to do a proper test.
Reigning V8 Supercar champion, Jamie Whincup could test for McLaren later this season, according to the latest rumours.
Whincup impressed last week when he swapped cars with Jenson Button and did four laps around Albert Park in the Woking-based outfit's 2009 F1 car. Now it is being reported that he might get the chance to do a proper run in May at a planned three-day young driver test in Spain.
"With what we saw with Jamie in such a short spell, if it was totally my call, I'd give him an opportunity, for sure. I'd like to bring him to Europe and give him a proper go," McLaren test team manager, Indy Lall told Speedcafe.com.au. "We've run some obscure drivers in the past because we've had to, but there's a genuine reason why we'd like to run Jamie.
"Jamie did a very good job. For the level that he's at, it would be quite easy for him to jump into a car and ignore the instructions that we gave him, but he did everything to a tee and more.
"His handling of the car was exceptional. You could tell that from the telemetry. I think overall, he did a very, very good job. He impressed everyone.
"We've currently got Oliver [Turvey] as our young driver who we are coaching and bringing up. He would be the first guy that we'd run [in May], but perhaps we could do two days with Oliver and Jamie could do one. But a lot of people need to talk to see if that's possible."
Whincup meanwhile has said that while he would be very interested in testing a McLaren F1 car again, his main focus remains on V8 Supercars.
"If I was given the opportunity to do a few more laps, even if it was to fly across the other side of the world to do one lap I would. It was the best experience of my life and one I'd love to do again," he told Pitpass.
"[But] I am committed here with V8's. There is no point trying to predict the future. I love what I do here in Australia, I love Australia, I love the V8 category and I love the people I am working with at TeamVodafone."
http://www.crash.net/f1/news/158285/1/whincup_to_test_for_mclaren.html
