This morning saw the start of the Ferrari Driver Academy Scouting Camp at Maranello, as part of the partnership with the ACI (Automobile Club d’Italia). Four drivers are taking part, all born between 2006 and 2007.
Italy, Sweden, Latvia. The evaluation camp, which runs until Thursday, is the result of the long-standing collaboration between the FDA and the ACI which occasionally brings some promising youngsters to Maranello for evaluation, using all the tools of Ferrari’s young driver programme. The ACI has chosen two Italians, Nicola Lacorte from Pisa, the only one to be racing in Formula 4 this season, along with three others from the world of karting, Matteo De Palo from Romeand two kart racers chosen by Ferrari, Oscar Pedersen, from Uppsala in Sweden and Tomass Stolcermanis, from Riga in Latvia.
On track at Fiorano, classroom in Maranello. The quartet will spend four busy days split between the Fiorano track and the Scuderia’s headquarters in Maranello. The programme includes lessons covering every aspect of a racing driver’s life, from physical training to motorsport theory as well as dealing with stress. The track activity will take place from tomorrow morning, though to the end of Wednesday, when they will get behind the wheel of a Formula 4 car fitted with tyres supplied by Pirelli, the FDA Scouting Camp partner, identical to those used in the championship. The final activity will be a track walk around the Ferrari-owned Fiorano circuit, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Talent search. This session is just one of the Scouting Camps organised each year by the Ferrari Driver Academy to evaluate the most promising youngsters, with the aim of taking on those deemed capable of one day driving a Ferrari Formula 1 car. At the end of the week, the FDA experts will meet to decide if any of the four candidates deserve to move forward to the Scouting World Finals at the end of the year, when a decision is taken as to whether or not any drivers should join the FDA. Currently, there are seven young men and two young women enrolled in the Academy.