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Ferrari test driver Robert Shwartzman is thrilled to have the opportunity to make his F1 debut with Ferrari later this season. He is set to participate in two practice sessions with the team.
Speaking in an interview with Motorsport in Maranello, the 22-year-old said:
“I’m a bit excited about the idea. I still don’t know exactly at which events I will be on-track, but it will undoubtedly be a good moment. I am proud to be able to drive a Ferrari on a race weekend, and also very interested in verifying the correlation work done with the engineers in the simulator.”
“We have spent so many hours improving the virtual car and bringing it as close to reality as possible. Now I can’t wait to see the results of this work first-hand. I’ll do the best I can to get a chance. Obviously I hope that the work I am doing this season will be of help to me.”
Revealing that he has no backup plans or alternatives other than racing in F1, Shwartzman said:
“Honestly, I don’t have a real Plan B, the kind that if I don’t go to Formula 1, there will already be an alternative project. Sometimes I think about what I could do, but today, I’m totally focused on Formula 1.”
Speaking about his difficulties amidst the swiftly worsening situation between Russia and Ukraine, he added:
“I obviously always had an Israeli passport, and for this reason, when the situation between Russia and Ukraine worsened, I decided to apply for a license in Israel. After all, I want to be a driver, reaching Formula 1 is my only goal and, waiting for the motorsport authorities to make the decisions that they then made, the need immediately arose in me to make sure I was available again if Ferrari needed to put me in the car. We reacted quickly to avoid missing any potential opportunities.”
Information regarding which race weekends Shwartzman will be taking part in the practice sessions to fill in for Carlos Sainz or Charles Leclerc has not yet been disclosed.
As reported by F1.com, when asked about their two allocated FP1 sessions for young drivers, Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies said:
“For us it’s Robert Shwartzman that will do our two FP1s. We haven’t exactly decided on which events it’s going to be. You would not pick races like Singapore or races where the race drivers need more running. I don’t think we have an issue in doing it during one of the weekends where we have Pirelli testing.”
Ferrari do not think their strategy team is a "weakness"
Ferrari's questionable strategy towards the last few sessions of the first half of the 2022 F1 season has been under plenty of scrutiny for all the points lost in the championship. Team boss Mattia Binotto, however, is standing up for his strategy team, claiming that it is not a "weakness"
Speaking to Autosport, the Italian said:
“I think there’s always a way of improving ourselves. You cannot be perfect, and you will never be perfect. So no doubt, we need to improve ourselves on the aero, chassis, power unit, on strategy or whatever we can. But having said that, I think I have got a great team on the strategy, and I do not feel it’s a weakness.”
Ferrari now have a mere 30-point advantage over Mercedes, who are quickly closing the gap to challenge the Prancing Horse for second in the constructors' standings.
