The 37-year-old French-Canadian, Jacques Villeneuve who contested the last of his 165 grands prix in 2006 with BMW Sauber, will drive for the Italian-based GP2 team Durango.
The GP2 stalward has hired the former F1 World Champion to be one of its two drivers as it embarks on its inaugural season in the Dubai-based stock car series.
“2009 for Durango will be the 25th anniversary,” said team manager Ivone Pinton. “It is an important achievement which we will start to celebrate having, for the first time, a Formula 1 world champion as official driver.”
Villeneuve, who is attempting to break into the NASCAR Sprint Cup series full time, set the fastest lap during a recent test session last week at the Dubai Autodrome, edging out his eventual teammate by just 2-10ths of a second.
