Jolyon Palmer will make his debut in a Formula One session on a Grand Prix weekend next Friday (10 April) and Lotus F1 Team Deputy Principal Federico Gastaldi is eager to see him behind the wheel. The 2014 GP2 Champion will participate in Free Practice One at the Shanghai International Circuit in his role as Lotus F1 Team's Official Third and Reserve Driver.

The Enstone-based squad released their official preview today (Thursday) ahead of the race with key figures offering their views on the forthcoming Grand Prix weekend. Gastaldi, when asked about Jolyon's importance within the team, commented: "Jolyon is a crucial part of the team for this season so it was important for us to see him in the car over the course of a Grand Prix early in the year." He continued: "For the first two races, it made sense for our race drivers to get as much time as possible in the car, but now we can start exercising some of Jolyon's talents in the FP1 session and we'll see him out in action quite a few times over the course of the year."

The 2014 GP2 Champion already has experience driving the E23 Hybrid as he completed 77 laps in the machine on the second day of the official Formula One pre-season test session at Barcelona in February. The 24-year-old, speaking after his participation in China had been confirmed last week, said: "I am really pleased that I will be back in the car for practice in China. I've never raced on the Shanghai circuit before so there is plenty of homework to do but I will make sure that I'm fully prepared for it."

Lotus F1 Team Technical Director Nick Chester gave an insight into the work Jolyon will carry out on Friday morning. He stated: "It will be good to have Jolyon out in action in FP1. His to-do list will be the same as the race drivers', so aero evaluation work, some set-up runs and then longer runs towards the end of the session. It will help with our weekend preparations as we always look at FP1 as being the development session."

Watch Jolyon in action live in China on Sky Sports F1 Channel at 3:00am GMT on Friday 10 April.

To download the Lotus F1 Team Chinese Grand Prix preview, click here.