While the Caterham F1 car is a backmarker again this season, getting any kind of foot in the door in F1 is worth taking. Alexander Rossi, one of the few American drivers involved in any way with F1 at the moment, will get back behind the wheel of the Caterham F1 car next week as he tests for the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix, entering his first official F1 session.

"I have a clear goal for the session--make sure I run to the plan set by the engineers, not make any mistakes and learn as much as I can over the whole weekend," said Rossi.

Rossi will be standing in for Heikki Kovalainen for the frist morning test session on Friday, May 11. Rossi says "it's a whole different world in Formula 1," and he should know. Nonetheless, he's looking forward to the opportunity, and has high hopes that he'll do well, further improving his chances of going beyond testing to actually qualifying and racing in F1.

At just 20 years old, Rossi is still young enough to find his way into a long-term F1 seat should his driving, sponsorship, and networking prove up to the task. He's competed in many different series, including Skip Barber, Formula BMW, GP2, GP3, and Formula Renault.

Rossi has previously driven a Caterham F1 car at Abu Dhabi as part of the Young Driver Test program in 2011, as well as a BMW-Sauber F1.09 in 2009 after winning the Formula BMW World Final. Rossi had also been on the list of possible reserve drivers for the stillborn US F1 team.