Notable driver tests through the years

Juha Bos wrote:

He also raced a few times in 956 Porsches.

In 1983 for Richard Lloyd in the two last rounds of the WEC at Imola and Mugello, sharing the car with Bell and Palmer. I think also on some other occasions.



Toivonen started his career in karts and touring cars, before moving to Formula Vee and Formula Super Vee. He switched to rally after that. Eddy Jordan was once recorded as saying that if Toivonen would have applied himself to open-wheelers, he would certainly have made it to F1 and won Grand Prix.

Back in those days, it was custom to draft in rally drivers for long distance touring car races (24h Spa, 24h Nordschleife) mainly to cover the night stints. Rally drivers were considered being better at those stints because they had more experience driving in the dark.

Timo

Prost tests a McLaren in 1995.

JYS testing a Ligier and a Lotus at Paul Ricard in 1978.

Gilles Villeneuve tests a stripped-down Ferrari at Fiorano, 1979.