Or even their race seats. The last inexperienced hot talent they employed is still Alesi back in 1991. Excluding contractually-obliged number two drivers, experience and WDCs trumps all.
Well, for their race seats, they definitely want hotshot ability. They signed Kimi on when he was considered the 'fastest man in F1' and then signed Alonso when he was considered top of the roost alongside Lewis, who was unavailable. Obviously before that, they nabbed Schumacher when he was considered the best on the grid.
Still don't agree with the whole 'contractual no.2' thing. I think Rubens and Massa were signed *expected* to be 2nd gunners considering they had already hired who they thought were the best in the business and were treated as such when those performance expectations proved entirely accurate, but I doubt there were any contractual obligations in place. And lets not pretend that both Rubens and Massa were not considered very quick drivers at those times. Either way, that whole thing has since passed. When Schumi left and Kimi was brought on expected to be the top gun of the field and the team, and that didn't pan out, they had zero qualms about supporting Massa and even relegating Kimi to a supporting role when Massa had the upperhand.
And then Ferrari's resigning of Kimi, when he was again considered by most to either be a top driver, or at least a *very good* driver, to partner Alonso reinforces the notion that Ferrari do want talented people in *either* seat of theirs. I don't see anything close to that same mentality when they pick their test drivers. In fact, I think these days, Ferrari mostly consider that role for drivers who they don't expect to make it into the race seat. I think the team would rather have any prospective drivers actually racing, as test drivers get so little actual seat time these days.