Scuderia Ferrari racing director Laurent Mekies has explained that the Maranello team would prefer to use just one of its young drivers when obliged to run rookies in free practice sessions starting from the 2022 Formula One season.
The sport is introducing mandatory sessions for young drivers to run in free practice to further integrate Formula 2 and Formula 3 into Formula 1 and thus create more chances for rookies to take to the track and gain experience, given the fact that testing sessions are not allowed as seen in previous years.
Scuderia Ferrari boasts a driver academy including F2 hopefuls Robert Schwartzman, Alfa Romeo driver Callum Ilott – who will drive in IndyCar next season – Marcus Armstrong and Arthur Leclerc, brother of Charles.
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Laurent Mekies was interviewed on the matter and asked if the Italian side would rotate its young drivers during the obligated FP1 running:
“It’s a good question. At first, as Ferrari, we welcome the opportunity to run the rookie in free practice sessions. We have been investing in the younger generation for many different reasons, for a number of years so without so many testing opportunities it’s great to see that as a sport we have now the window to at least give them these FP1 opportunities. I tend to think that we will run only one driver because two sessions is still very little. We all know that it’s a very tough ask to a young driver, to get into a car in FP1, one hour, and to perform, so I think giving only one shot and not the two shots to whoever is going to probably be… is not the best way around, so I think the short answer is probably going to be one driver only.” – the Scuderia Ferrari racing director explained.
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