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Added on the 08/02/2022 06:50:18 - Copyright : Auto Moto EN
Scuderia Ferrari’s five days of testing at Fiorano ended today, with Mick Schumacher driving in the morning and test driver Callum Ilott taking over for the afternoon. No fewer than seven drivers took part in the test: apart from Mick and Callum, the others were the official race drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, the latter making his track debut with the Prancing Horse, Robert Shwartzman and Marcus Armstrong. Giuliano Alesi also bid farewell to the Ferrari Driver Academy, having his first drive in a Formula 1 car, 30 years on from his father Jean’s debut with the team. Over the five days, the SF71H completed over 500 laps, equivalent to more than 1500 kilometres. It was a useful experience for the drivers and also for the team, enabling the crew to get back in the swing of racing, testing all the procedures for the coming season, which at least for the first part will be the same as last year’s, with personnel split into sub-groups and bubbles and having to wear masks as part of the Covid-19 protocols.
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow presented the 2021 team in an on-line event which involved not only team partners and the media but also over 300 fans linked up from all over the world to see Charles Leclerc’s and Carlos Sainz’s first official appearance of the year in Scuderia colours.The event began with a short film presenting this season’s driver pairing, as they chatted away. There was obvious chemistry between them, as had already been seen after the Fiorano test a few weeks back, when they drove a 2018 F1 car. After the film, Charles, Carlos and Team Principal Mattia Binotto were seen in a studio setting in the Ferrari Museum in Maranello.
At 9.30 on the dot this morning, Charles Leclerc drove out of the pits at Fiorano for an installation lap in the 2018 SF71H, thus getting Scuderia Ferrari’s 2021 season properly underway.The Monegasque was back at the wheel 44 days on from the final Grand Prix of 2020, held on 13 December in Abu Dhabi. Today, he was able to get down to work again with the team, reacquainting himself with procedures and driving a Formula 1 car for over 100 laps. On Charles’ programme were practice starts and work aimed at the new championship and pre-season testing which takes place in mid-March.
Audi Sport took another step towards the Dakar Rally in the second week of November. At the second test in Morocco, Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist, Stéphane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger and Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz took turns in the cockpit of the Audi RS Q e-tron.High-speed tracks, gravel roads, dune mountains, dried-out river beds: Audi’s innovative prototype for the Dakar Rally was spared nothing during its second test in Morocco. Within an extremely tight project timeframe of little more than twelve months, the team has developed the RS Q e-tron to such an extent that it can now handle daily off-road distances in testing equalling the length of a Dakar stage. Still, many challenges remain between now and January. “The entire team is focusing its energy on continuing the development under the toughest conditions,” says Arnau Niubó Bosch, Head of Test Engineering. “It was impressive how important findings flowed back to Neuburg from Morocco at a daily pace. As a result, our three rally cars currently under construction for the Dakar Rally will have the latest technical status. At the same time, logistical preparations are in full swing.”
At 9.30 the shutters rolled up on the pit garage at the Fiorano track and a minute later Carlos Sainz was out for his first lap at the wheel of a Ferrari Formula 1 car. Naturally enough, the 26 year-old from Madrid ran his usual F1 number 55 on the SF71H, the 2018 car, as he completed more than a hundred laps on his maiden outing with the Scuderia. Carlos worked with the engineers he had already met in several meetings held over the past weeks and also got to know the mechanics and the car procedures, many of which will also be relevant to this year’s SF21, which he and Charles Leclerc will drive for the first time at the pre-season test in Bahrain during the second week in March.
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