Sakon Yamamoto has landed a reserve seat for the opening three races of the season with the Marussia Virgin Racing outfit.
Yamamoto had a brief fling with Hispania at the end of the season, replacing Karun Chandhok alongside Bruno Senna. The Japanese driver failed to secure a race seat for the upcoming season, instead settling on a reserve role.
“We are delighted to welcome Sakon Yamamoto to Marussia Virgin Racing as our Reserve Driver for the first three race weekends,” said team principal John Booth.
He said the decision to hire the 28-year-old for just three races was to help nuture talent in the sport, with other drivers likely to take his place throughout the year.
“In keeping with our commitment to nurturing young talent, our Reserve Driver strategy is to help a number of drivers gain hard to come by track time and so we will be operating a roster featuring a number of racers that we are interested in evaluating during the forthcoming season.”