FDA wraps up its first year

From last year to this, the Christmas dinner with the Italian press is becoming something of a significant event for the Ferrari Driver Academy, the programme instigated by Ferrari to bring on a new generation of drivers. It was at this very event last year that Luca Baldisserri presented this initiative to the media and so it was logical that yesterday, he should sum up the FDA’s first year.

“An important element in the preparation of the Ferrari Driver Academy students has been physical and mental training run by sports trainers, with the support of a psychologist, who through individual sessions with medical personnel, used innovative technology to measure reactivity,” explained Luca Baldisserri. “Working on the simulator was also an indispensable tool for memorising the characteristics of various circuits that the drivers had to tackle during the season, as well as playing a part in teaching the driver to adapt his driving style to suit various track conditions and making the work with the racing engineers and the team technical staff become second nature.”

On track tests at the wheel of a Formula 1 car and a Formula Abarth completed the training in the field. Throughout the course, the young FDA students were aided by highly specialised engineers, who supplied personalised technical advice, aimed at test and race preparation. Baldisserri went on to reveal that the best race results of those entered in the programme came from the French driver, Brandon Maisano, who won the first ever Formula ACI-CSAI Abarth championship title, while among changes for 2011, the FDA announced it had ended its collaboration with Daniel Zampieri and Mirko Bortolotti, while it had signed an agreement with Sergio Perez who will drive for Sauber in the 2011 F1 championship.