Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc is preparing at Fiorano for the second round of the 2021 Formula 1 season, which will take place at Imola next week and it looks like we have returned to the old days when Ferrari’s “home track” was used to improve the red cars. However, in this case the Monegasque is driving the SF71H, the Ferrari single-seater from three years ago that the Maranello team is allowed to use for driver training.
Not surprising at all, given that yesterday on the 3.3 km track, Robert Shwartzman and Marcus Armstrong got the chance to carry out work that the FDA scheduled for the young boys, by completing a distance of 400 km without any problem. And it should not be forgotten that before the start of the championship, Ferrari had organized a five-day test at Fiorano which involved the two starting drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and young drivers from the Academy, including Mick Schumacher.
Charles Leclerc, therefore, has the opportunity to train on the track instead of on the simulator, taking advantage of one of the opportunities that Ferrari has, the Italian side owns two circuits (Fiorano and Mugello). In recent years, the use of Fiorano had taken a back seat, while now it seems to be back thanks to the F1 regulations that allow tests with “historic” cars, that were used at least a couple of years ago.
Ferrari has prepared the SF71H for this type of training, while an SF90 has been transformed into a “mule car” for the development of the lowered tires that will be used on the ground-effect single-seaters in 2022.
Charles Leclerc is certainly among the most committed drivers because after the Bahrain Grand Prix he participated in the tests organized by Pirelli in Sakhir with 18-inch tires, together with Carlos Sainz and he now adds this testing session at Fiorano with the SF71H.
It goes without saying that the SF71H car is equipped with “demo” tires that Pirelli makes available on the occasion of filming days.
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