A special day for Davide Rigon

Tomorrow will be a special day for Davide Rigon, who has been on the books at Scuderia Ferrari for racing and promotional work for the past two years. The driver who comes from Thiene (Vicenza) will make his debut in an official test for Scuderia Ferrari, here at Magny-Cours, which as from today, is hosting the three days of Formula 1 testing aimed at young drivers. Not that Davide hasn’t put in plenty of kilometres at the wheel of a Red car already, but so far that work has been restricted to aerodynamic tests or promotional filming days. However, tomorrow he will have an entire day at the wheel of an F2012, a car he at knows well in the virtual sense, from all the days he has put in working at the simulator in Maranello.

“Driving any Formula 1 car in a test is sensational, but when the car is a Ferrari, it becomes a truly unique experience,” said Davide on the Scuderia website. “The main aim of the day will be to look more closely at the correlation between the track and the simulator, which is the workplace where I spend most of my time for the team.”

This year, Rigon is racing a 458 GT2 in the Blancpain Endurance Series and this will be his first test in a single-seater since his horrible accident in GP2 last year at the Istanbul Park circuit. “Physically, I have completely recovered and I am 100% ready to do a lot of kilometres in a Formula 1 car,” continued Davide. “This year, I have trained hard and taking part in the training camp in Lanzarote in January with the rest of the race drivers was even more of a stimulus in helping me with my winter time preparation. It gave me first hand experience of what it means to prepare to tackle a Formula 1 season, where everything has to be 100% ready.

Davide will take over from Jules Bianchi who drove the F2012 today, but he will still see his French colleague and friend on track, as he will be driving for Force India. On Thursday, the last of the three days, Bianchi will be back at the wheel of the Ferrari, before heading off to Budapest for the third from last round of the World Series, the championship in which Jules is competing this year. The Ferrari Driver Academy student is right in the fight for the title, currently lying third, just six points off the leader.