Ferrari-backed driver Antonio Fuoco is set to pilot the manufacturer’s 2019 Formula 1 car in the Barcelona in-season test following the Spanish Grand Prix. The 22-year-old Italian will share the SF90 with race driver Charles Leclerc in the two-day test on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Circuit de Catalunya.
F1 teams are obliged to run drivers with fewer than three grand prix starts for two of the four in-season testing days across Bahrain and Barcelona. Ferrari gave a day to junior driver Mick Schumacher in Bahrain, but has elected not to call him up for Barcelona, preferring that German’s full focus is with his rookie Formula 2 campaign. Fellow Ferrari-backed F2 racer Callum Ilott will be driving Alfa Romeo’s car in the test, while Ferrari’s high-profile simulator driver signings for 2019 – Brendon Hartley and Pascal Wehrlein – are both too experienced to be counted towards Ferrari’s rookie test obligations.
On the Tuesday, Charles Leclerc will drive for Ferrari, while Sebastian Vettel will be working for the sport’s sole tyre supplier. On Wednesday, Charles will drive for Pirelli, while at the wheel of the SF90 for the Scuderia will be Antonio Fuoco. The former Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) student is currently one of four drivers working in the Ferrari simulator.
Antonio Fuoco, who has won three races in F2 across two seasons in 2017-18, has thus emerged as the logical solution as he is fully involved in Ferrari’s simulator programme, and would duly aid the team in assessing correlation between its simulator and the SF90 on track.
The Italian has trialled current-specification Ferrari machinery in the past, taking part in in-season testing at the Red Bull Ring in 2015 and in Barcelona the year after (pictured below). Fuoco’s only confirmed campaign for 2019 is in the Italian GT championship’s four-round Sprint Series, in which he’s to share an AF-Corse run Ferrari 488 GT3 with Singaporean racer Sean Hudspeth.
For Ferrari the two days of in-season testing will be extremely important given the Maranello team’s poor pace and performance at the Spanish Grand Prix. The Italian side will have the opportunity to test the recent updates in the hope of improving the SF90’s overall pace, as Ferrari must address the car weaknesses. Team Principal Mattia Binotto confirmed that their comparatively poor cornering performance could not be solved by simply adding more downforce to the car, suggesting they may need to change the philosophy behind its design. As a result, an extra chassis has been dropped off at Ferrari after the Spanish Grand Prix, for the two day test this week.
Barcelona F1 testing line-up
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc, Sebastian Vettel* / Antonio Fuoco, Leclerc*
Mercedes: Nikita Mazepin, Valtteri Bottas (days TBC)
Red Bull: Pierre Gasly/Dan Ticktum
Renault: Nico Hulkenberg/Jack Aitken
Haas: Pietro Fittipaldi/Kevin Magnussen
McLaren: Carlos Sainz Jr, Lando Norris/Sergio Sette Camara, Oliver Turvey (unconfirmed)
Racing Point: Nick Yelloly (both days), Sergio Perez*/Lance Stroll*
Alfa Romeo: Callum Ilott/Kimi Raikkonen
Toro Rosso: Daniil Kvyat/Alex Albon
Williams: Nicholas Latifi (both days)
*Pirelli tyre testing
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