Ferrari will mark one of the two mandatory weekends in which to line up a driver who has not raced more than 2 races in the world champion Circus in the first free practice session of a Formula 1 grand prix.
Robert Shwartzman, reserve driver of the Prancing Horse Scuderia, will take part in Free Practice 1 of the Dutch Grand Prix, scheduled for this Friday at the Zandvoort track.
The Russian of Israeli origin will take the place of Carlos Sainz Jr. and will be Charles Leclerc’s teammate in the session which marks the start of the second part of the 2023 Formula 1 season after the end of the summer break.
“I am thrilled to get on the SF-23 after working on its development in the simulator,” Shwartzman said just days before his 2023 Ferrari debut. “Driving a Formula 1 car during a World Championship race weekend it’s something really special and one to be very proud of, especially if you represent Scuderia Ferrari, the team that has supported me throughout my career.”
“Before the summer break, I did half a day of testing at Fiorano and I regained confidence with the cockpit, since I hadn’t driven a single-seater for a long time. Even if the car was an SF21, very different from the SF-23 and with the 13″ tyres, it was still a very useful session to prepare for these free practice sessions at Zandvoort. It will be interesting for me to have the opportunity to immerse myself in this year’s car and compare it with last year’s F1-75”.
Robert Schwartzman, Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
The use of Shwartzman could be understood as a waste of time, with Sainz who will be forced to skip one of the three sessions used to better prepare the cars for qualifying and Sunday’s race. But it was the Madrileno himself who chose the place in which to hand over the wheel and, above all, Shwartzman will be useful to the team for the type of work he will be carrying out.
“For my part, I’ll do my best to help the team as much as possible by completing the work plan, which is designed to get the most out of the car both in terms of set-up and in terms of data collection, which will come in handy to the team for the second part of the season. In fact, there is a development program that will go on behind the scenes, in the Maranello simulator, which needs as much data as possible to be able to continue in an even more aggressive manner”.
Meanwhile, Shwartzman has already had the opportunity to gain confidence with the Dutch track thanks to several sessions done on the simulator located in Maranello. Here are the Russian’s impressions related to the track where, for two years now, Red Bull has been the master.
“Zandvoort is one of the toughest tracks on the Formula 1 calendar and I’ve only physically driven there once, before the circuit was modified, so it will all feel very new to me. Looking around on the simulator, I can tell that it’s extremely demanding, with corners characterized by lots of inclines, some of which can be tackled with different lines, and it is also demanding on the car as it pushes it to the limit in several respects.Despite being quite complex, it is also a very interesting track from a pure driving point of view for I look forward to having a lot of fun next Friday.”
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