Red Bull set to revive Coulthard's F1 career

David Coulthard has been thrown a last-minute Formula One lifeline as Red Bull Racing's driver selection process has swung back in his favour. The 33-year-old Scot has had a seat fitting for the team and will test in Jerez, Spain, this week.

Coulthard's manager, Martin Brundle, said: "We are still discussing a number of possibilities." But with the Ferrari test drive going to the Spaniard Marc Gene, the German Nick Heidfeld lining up to take over testing responsibilities at Williams-BMW and the Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia almost certain to race the second Williams alongside the Australian Mark Webber, Red Bull and Jordan-Ford remain Coulthard's only serious options. Sources within the Red Bull team say he will be named as team leader early this week.

Coulthard was dropped by McLaren in favour of the Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya for 2005, but can still boast an impressive 13 victories from his 175 grands prix, 12 pole positions and 18 fastest laps.

It is now crucial that Red Bull choose the right partner for Coulthard, blending his experience with youthful speed and enthusiasm. The logical choice is the Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi, who dominated the Formula 3000 championship under Red Bull sponsorship this year, winning 70 per cent of the races and taking podium finishes in 90 per cent.

With a style reminiscent of Alain Prost, Liuzzi gives the lie to anyone naïve enough to suggest that he needs a season as test driver to learn the ropes. He proved in a test for Sauber-Petronas in September, and again testing for Red Bull in Barcelona and Jerez recently, that he is more than ready to race. Despite using a car that was not to the same specification as the interim development model driven at the same time by the Austrian driver Christian Klien, who raced for Jaguar in 2004, Liuzzi was comfortably quicker. Red Bull's management must now prove they are a serious entity by signing Liuzzi to partner Coulthard.

The British driver Anthony Davidson may test for Red Bull, but seems most likely to stay on for another season as BAR- Honda's test driver alongside Jenson Button and Takuma Sato. The Brackley-based team last week gave the British Formula Three hopefuls, James Rossiter and Adam Carroll, their first taste of Formula One in Spain, while McLaren did the same with the European Formula Three champion, Jamie Green, plus Lewis Hamilton and Alex Lloyd at Silverstone.

Green, who was tipped to race in the new Formula One-supporting GP2 series next year, has now signed a deal to race in the German DTM series alongside his fellow Briton Gary Paffett instead.