despite continually having trouble raising a budget for his racing, he has still managed to outperform drivers who have had funding readily available to them, including 2005 team-mate, and ex f1 driver, giorgio pantano. his undoubted talent caught the eye of formula one and in 2005 he was signed as a test driver for formula one team bar-honda. for the 2006 gp2 season he surprised many in choosing to join the racing engineering team when his previous team had a better chance of picking up the title. it soon became clear that due to carroll's continued lack of sponsorship, the racing engineering deal saved him from having to drop out of top line motorsport altogether. he has since removed himself from the honda driver program sensing a lack of opportunity as button and barrichello would be hard to replace.