MOTORSPORT: Aussie goes from F3 also-ran to F1 tester

A little-known Australian racing driver who has not won a race in four years in Europe is to test a Formula One car next week.

Richard "Spike" Goddard, 22, will drive one of the middle-ranking Force India team's VJM07 cars at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina next Wednesday – the second day of the official F1 post-season test.

Fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo, a three-time Grand Prix winner this year and certain to finish third in the world championship at this weekend's Abu Dhabi finale, also will be on track there next Wednesday for Red Bull Racing, runner-up in this year's constructors' championship after having won it the past four years.

Force India will test Jolyon Palmer, the 23-year-old son of British ex-F1 racer Jonathan Palmer, on Tuesday before Goddard takes over the Mercedes-powered VJM07 the next day.

Palmer has been chosen for the test on form – he has just won the GP2 title in the main feeder series for F1 – while Goddard could only have secured his day's testing with money, perhaps as much as several hundred thousand dollars.

The only sponsor acknowledged on Goddard's website, spikegoddard.com, is his own Spike Racing.

He uses the nickname Spike, given to him by his grandfather because of his spiky hair in early childhood, rather than his first name.

Goddard, who was born in the US but grew up in Sydney, has been in Europe for four years, driving in Formula Ford and Formula Three, but has never won a race.

He was 23rd in this year's European F3 Championship, finishing with three points, in contrast with the 478 of the champion, Frenchman Esteban Ocon.

Goddard contested last year's Toyota Racing Series, finishing 17th – lowest-placed of the drivers to contest that entire open-wheeler series in New Zealand.

He competed in the NSW Formula Ford Championship in 2009 and the Victorian series in 2010 before moving into the British Formula Ford Championship with Jamun Racing.

He has since raced in F3 with another British team, ThreeBond with T-Sport.

His one success has been winning the national class of the 2012 British F3 Championship, but only one other driver did the full season in that class – fellow Australian Duvashen Padayachee.

Force India, sixth of the 11 teams in this season's F1 constructors' championship in which the bottom two (Marussia and Caterham) are doomed, is owned by controversial Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya, who says the team has a "commitment to offering young, talented drivers an opportunity on the biggest stage in motorsport".

"I'm pleased that we can conclude our season by giving two promising youngsters their first taste of F1," Mallya said.

"We have a strong track record of identifying up-and-coming prospects and giving them valuable mileage and experience in our cars.

"I have been following Jolyon's progress this season in GP2 and he is clearly a big talent that deserves a chance in F1.

"Spike has also worked hard to get this chance and it's the perfect opportunity to showcase his skills."

Goddard thanked Force India for "this incredible opportunity".

"Every young racing driver dreams to be at the wheel of an F1 car and I am very excited to be one of the very few who gets to fulfill this dream," he said.

"The test is an important stage in the preparations for 2015 and I hope my contribution will be useful for the team to get a head start for next season."

Meanwhile, Spanish youngster Carlos Sainz Junior – son of a world rally champion and Dakar Rally winner – will drive Red Bull's RB10 in the Abu Dhabi test the day before Ricciardo.

The 20-year-old Sainz won this year's Formula Renault 3.5 Championship and is a contender for the second seat at Red Bull's junior F1 team Scuderia Toro Rosso next year, alongside 17-year-old Dutchman Max Verstappen.

But the best news on the young driver front is that Frenchman Jules Bianchi, critically injured in a crash at the wet Japanese GP on October 5 has been transferred from a hospital near the Suzuka circuit to another at Nice in France.

Bianchi's family said that, while he remained in a critical condition, his vital signs were stable, he was breathing unaided, was no longer in an induced coma but still unconscious.

"His treatment now enters a new phase concerned with the improvement of his brain function," the family's statement said.