He may have only just signed on for duty with the Virgin Racing Formula One team but Andy Soucek was making the most of it yesterday when he joined the team at the Circuit de Cataluña in Barcelona Spain yesterday for the first day of their final test.

While he wasn’t behind the wheel on the first day as duties fell to rookie racer Lucas di Grassi, Andy is hoping that he will get his chance with the VR-01 in the not too distant future. He also took part in both briefing sessions before the test as well as the afternoon de-briefing with the drivers and engineers.

“I had a good day. I met all of the members of the team and got to know as many of them as possible. There are a lot of young and very motivated people here trying to push as hard as possible,” he was quoted as saying on the official F2 website.

“I have been learning throughout the day - I have been speaking with the drivers and of course looking through all of the data. I feel like an important part of the team and I am really happy. We had a few issues with the car and it is important that the race drivers can complete more than 30 laps each day - I will get my moment once the car is reliable and I am looking forward to it very much."