That disastrous spell with Jaguar did Pizzonia’s reputation no good and he is determined to prove he can cut it at the highest level after being given the chance to replace previous stand-in Marc Gene for Williams.

Pizzonia has targeted a points finish to help Williams in the constructors’ championship, with the British team suffering a difficult season and facing a fight just to stay in the top four.

Pizzonia, who was an impressive fifth-fastest in practice yesterday, said: “I am looking forward to it for sure, I’m looking forward to the racing. I am still quite relaxed and very confident.

“I am sure I can do a good job. Obviously the team needs points, they didn’t have the best results in the last few races so we need points for sure and that’s our target here – score as many points as we can this weekend.

“I know this car really well, I have done a lot of miles on the car. I know the team really well and the team knows me really well. I think that is the biggest difference to last year for sure.

“I feel a lot more involved in the team and in the car. This car is obviously better than what I was driving last year so our target is to score points.

“At the moment there is no pressure coming from the team which is good but I know the team situation – we are not in a good position in the championship, we didn’t score a lot of points in the last few races. We need points from both cars.”

Pizzonia, a former British Formula Three champion, has initially been given just Sunday’s race to shine, with Schumacher potentially returning in Hungary next month.

He wants to use the opportunity to stake his claim for a race drive next season, although he has the safety net of a Williams test deal.

“It all depends how early Ralf will come back, I think he’s already talking about Budapest but I don’t think that will happen,” he said.

“But then if I do well here I will probably do Budapest as well.

“I have a long-term contract with Williams but I think it all depends on this weekend and maybe the next one. It is too early for that at the moment, I am concentrating on this weekend.

“Obviously I want to race next year. I know what I can do and I am sure I will do it, I try not to talk too much about what happened last season, sometimes it sounds a bit like excuses, I just want to show what I can do.”