Robert Shwartzman, the Russo-Israeli racing driver who currently serves as a development driver for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One team, will make his debut behind the wheel of the Ferrari F1-75 challenger in the first Free Practice for the United States Grand Prix, which is scheduled to take place later today at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin.
But how much do we know about the talented young driver of the Ferrari Driver Academy, which is considered one of most promising drivers to watch out for. Let’s find out more.
Who is Robert Shwartzman?
Robert Shwartzman was born in Israel on September 16, 1999, but grew up in Russia, where at the age of four he took his first steps in the motorsport racing world by driving karts. During this experience he won titles all over Europe, including the Easykart International Grand Final in 2008 and 2009 and the WSK Final Cup in 2013. Then, in 2014, he switched to single-seaters, participating in six races of the Formula 4 Italian Championship with Cram Motorsport, finishing sixteenth in the overall standings.
In 2015, Robert Shwartzman participated in the full championship with Mücke Motorsport, taking two victories (at the Adria and Misano circuits) which allowed him to finish third place in the final standings. In the same season he also competed in the inaugural German Formula 4 championship, finishing fourth.
In the 2016 season, Robert Shwartzman competed in Formula Renault 2.0 with the reigning champion team, Josef Kaufmann Racing. The balance: two victories and sixth place in the overall ranking. In 2017, he continued in Formula Renault 2.0, but with the R-ace GP team, with which he took third place in the drivers’ standings thanks to six wins and several podiums. Subsequently, in September 2017, he tested a European F3 single-seater for the first time with the Prema Powerteam team, being included among the drivers of the Ferrari Driver Academy, the Maranello team’s program for young drivers.
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The following season, he took part in the 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Prema. During the championship, Russo-Israeli racing driver scored two victories: the second one, which took place in the final round of the campaign, allowed him to overtake in the overall standings another young man from the Ferrari Driver Academy, Marcus Armstrong.
In the end, the Robert Shwartzman finished in the top three and won the Rookie title.
The Ferrari junior also raced in 2019 with the Prema team, but in the FIA Formula 3 Championship. Here, he won the debut race in Barcelona and the next round at Paul Ricard. Then, the third victory of the season came in Monza. Thanks to these three wins and six other podiums, Robert Shwartzman won the title in Sochi on September 28th with one round until the end of the season.
In the 2020 campaign, Robert Shwartzman was selected by the Prema team for the Formula 2 championship, together with Mick Schumacher. Here too, Robert won at his debut race, held on the Spielberg circuit and the following weekend he did it again at Hungaroring.
However, a sharp drop in performance caused him to slide to fourth at the end of the championship. Then the Russian improved in 2021, when he finished the Formula 2 championship in second place in the overall standings, behind only the now well-known Oscar Piastri.
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