Battistini impresses

Battistini, 30, the reigning Asia-Pacfic Formula Three champion, spent two days with the series front-runners at Sebring in Florida along with Venezuelan GP2 driver Ernesto Viso.

"I was impressed with Dillon with his professional approach and feedback," said Wiggins. "It was more of a jump for him from F3 [than for Viso], but he definitely proved that with enough time in the car he'll be a good addition to the Champ Car World Series."

For Battistini, it was his first time driving a single-seater with a semi-automatic gearbox, but he was left wanting more and is now trying to persuade his sponsors to help him into the championship next year.

"The test went very well for me," said Battistini. "Jumping into this car straight away after F3 is a substantial jump, but considering that, I am quite happy with what we achieved in such a short amount of time.

"Things went as well as I could have ever hoped for. The team is wonderful, all the guys were great, and I learned a lot from everyone. We made a lot of progress developing the car, we worked through our program, and I'm pleased to have helped in that way.

"The car was great! The amount of power it has is fantastic, but very manageable. Hopefully this test has given my backers the confidence to allow me to be in Champ Car full-time in 2008 and I'm excited to be a part of it."

No times were released by the team, but they described each drivers' performance as "very competitive." Both Battistini and Viso are expected to return to the USA to test again in January.

Viso, 22, said: "I am very happy with the two days of testing with Minardi Team USA, and I feel we had a very productive test.

"I got to know the car, and I gained a better understanding of the behaviour of this chassis. It is different from what I am used to, but I figured it out pretty quickly.

"I think we turned some competitive lap times and I believe even faster than in the previous tests. We worked on a lot of set-up changes, and I hope my feedback has helped the engineers."