Seven boys and two girls. This season there will be nine drivers that the Ferrari Driver Academy will follow and train, even if this morning in Maranello there were seven. Absent justified Mick Schumacher And Robert Shwartzman, the two most experienced, engaged with their respective Formula 1 teams, Haas F1 Team for the German – with whom he is preparing to compete in the second season as a starter – and Scuderia Ferrari for the Russian who in 2022 will cover the role of Test Driver . A few minutes from the start of the first of the workshops in which the pilots were involved, the apartment mates in the FDA House in 2021 – Arthur Leclerc, Dino Beganovic, Maya Weug and James Wharton – helped the freshmen – Oliver Bearman and Rafael Camara , selected in the second edition of the FDA Scouting World Finals, and Laura Camps Torras, the second girl to join the Ferrari Academy after winning the FIA Girls on Track – Rising Stars – program, initially a little more shy and on their own, to feel at ease within the Sports Management.
Marco Matassa, FDA Director, Team Principal of Scuderia Ferrari, Mattia Binotto, and Racing Director, Laurent Mekies, welcomed the students. During this week the drivers will face the traditional Camp of the beginning of the year, based on four demanding days that include workshops on various topics – from race engineering to nutrition, from managing decisions under stress to the latest news related to the FIA sporting regulations – as well as various psychophysical tests, various sports activities and a day on karts at Franciacorta Karting together with Tony Kart, a historic partner who also supports the FDA in its scouting program.
Programs – The 2022 season will see the nine drivers of the Ferrari Driver Academy engaged on various fronts. Said of Schumacher and Shwartzman and their commitments in Formula 1, this season there will be no Maranello drivers in Formula 2, since it has been decided not to continue the relationship with Marcus Armstrong. Callum Ilott was instead granted an “annual license” to allow him to experience the adventure in the American IndyCar series, a category in which it would have been too difficult for the FDA to continue to follow the British driver to Academy standards.
Formula 3 – There will be two drivers involved in Formula 3: Arthur Leclerc is in his second season in the category and after his good debut last year – in which he won two wins, a podium and a pole position – this season he is expected among the contenders for the title. In the Prema team he will be accompanied by Oliver Bearman, who in 2021 was the ruler of Formula 4, in which he won both the Italian and German titles – the two highest-level series in the world – taking home a total of 17 victories and ten pole positions. Precisely in light of these results with the British born in 2005 it was decided to skip the Formula Regional and try to compete in one of the most competitive series in the world.
Formula Regional – The European Formula Regional Championship will also see Dino Beganovic among the protagonists in 2022. The Swede, confirmed in the Prema team, during 2021 was the author of an evident growth that in the last few races has seen him regularly fighting for a victory that would have also arrived, in Monza, had it not been for the wicked maneuver of a another competitor two laps from the end. This year Dino wants to be among the contenders for the title and for this reason immediately after the last day with the Academy he will leave for Abu Dhabi where on the weekend of 22 and 23 January he will be competing in the Formula Regional Asia. The Swede will play the entire championship – which will end in mid-February – in preparation for the most competitive European series. To keep him company there will also be Leclerc and, in the last two rounds, Bearman.
Formula 4 – The Ferrari Driver Academy will be represented by three drivers in Formula 4. All will compete mainly in the Italian series, the most competitive of all, with some forays into selected races of the German one. These are Maya Weug, in the second year in the category, of James Wharton – the Australian winner of the first edition of the FDA Scouting World Finals – and of Rafael Cȃmara – selected in the 2022 edition. Laura Camps Torras, who won the second edition of the FIA Girls on Track – Rising Stars program, will instead be committed to karts and, just like Wharton last year, will begin to get acquainted with the Formula 4 single-seater, traditionally the debut category in single-seater. Happy New Year to all guys!
Mattia Binotto (Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal & Managing Director): “The 2022 class of the Ferrari Driver Academy started its journey today. This is always an important day, for the boys and girls who are protagonists but also for the Scuderia Ferrari, because this program is an important part of what #essereFerrari means. From the FDA we not only want to bring out the best talents to take them to race with our single-seaters in Formula 1 but we want to train people and drivers who know how to best interpret the values that distinguish Scuderia Ferrari. This year we have seven boys and two girls who will continue their journey towards that final goal which is Formula 1, a championship in which in 2022 20% of the registered drivers have been or are still part of the FDA. The dream – theirs but also ours – is to imitate Charles Leclerc, who is now starting his fourth season as an official driver of the Scuderia. My personal good luck goes to each of them for a new growing season, to be faced with a great desire to learn and, above all, always with a smile because that of the pilot is one of the most beautiful jobs in the world “.
Marco Matassa (Head of Ferrari Driver Academy): “The start of a new season for the Ferrari Driver Academy is a solemn moment, even more so this year: in time of an ongoing pandemic, it is wonderful to be able to open the doors of the Gestione Sportiva to our boys again. We will have nine students to follow and to each of them we will give all our experience, helping them to make their way in an ultra competitive environment like that of single-seater racing. 2021 was a year of sowing, in which many of our talents made their debut in new categories: I expect that this season we will begin to reap the benefits. We want more wins and to see our boys vying for titles in at least two leagues. I also want to do a big good luck to our freshmen, Oliver, Rafael and Laura, who in addition to being drivers of sure prospect confirm the success of our talent selection scheme, based on partnerships with ACI, Tony Kart, Escuderia Telmex and Motorsport Australia, as well as with the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission for the Girls on Track – Rising Stars program in which we strongly believe “.
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