The familiar face of Pedro de la Rosa will be back in the McLaren garage this season after the team re-signed him as their test and reserve driver.
The Spaniard left the Woking-based team at the start of the 2010 season to take up a race seat at Sauber. However, he was dropped by the Hinwil outfit after 13 races and he took up the post of Pirelli test driver.
"Of all the teams I've driven for in Formula 1, McLaren is the one that really feels like home," said de la Rosa, who spent seven years with McLaren from 2003 until 2009.
"So I'm very excited about returning to the team to help push the development of the MP4-26.
"Lewis and Jenson already have an extremely positive and productive working relationship - so, building on and adding to their existing rapport, I'm aiming to do everything I can to help them get even more from our car, our engineers and our technical resources back at the McLaren Technology Centre."
Team boss Martin Whitmarsh is happy to have de la Rosa back at McLaren and also confirmed that Gary Paffett will also be retained as test and reserve driver.
"I know I speak for all my colleagues when I say that I'm delighted that Pedro has chosen to return to McLaren," Whitmarsh said.
"He rejoins us with even greater experience, and his motivation and attention to detail remain as sharp as ever. His recruitment adds considerable strength in depth to our driver line-up.
"With two world champion race drivers in Lewis and Jenson, and two of the world's most experienced and capable development drivers in Pedro and Gary, we feel we have a quartet of talent that is absolutely second-to-none.
"Meanwhile, we wish Gary a very successful season in the DTM series with Mercedes-Benz - and are delighted that, away from the world's racetracks, he'll continue to give us the benefit of his considerable technical and developmental abilities."
