Oliver Turvey is testing for the Carlin team at Silverstone this week, replacing Mikhail Aleshin who has been forced to withdraw from GP2 due to budget issues.
Turvey raced for iSport International in 2010 but has been struggling to secure a race seat for this season after the end of the support of the Racing Steps Foundation. He raced for Ocean Racing Technology in the Asia Series, but the Portuguese team has now confirmed its lineup for the European-based season without the British driver.
Turvey previously raced for Carlin in both British Formula 3 and Formula Renault 3.5. He is joining compatriot and former F3 rival Max Chilton at the team during the tests.
Russian driver Aleshin won the Formula Renault 3.5 title with the team in 2010 and raced for them in the 2011 GP2 Asia Series. He had been due to continue through the main season, but has had to withdraw from the team after hitting budgetary issues.
Team boss Trevor Carlin said: “Unfortunately due to some funding problems Mikhail has had to withdraw from his GP2 programme, although he is working hard to secure alternative funding. In his absence, we have Oliver in the car who we know extremely well from previous seasons. Oliver has a great deal of experience and is the perfect driver to help us progress further with the car. We're still assessing all the options for our second driver for the season.”
