The final day of F1 testing featuring young hopefuls at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, saw the top three finishers in the Italian Formula 3 Championship taking turns at the wheel of the F60, brought to the track by Scuderia Ferrari, for their prize drive.

The final day of F1 testing featuring young hopefuls at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit yesterday saw the top three finishers in the Italian Formula 3 Championship taking turns at the wheel of the F60, brought to the track by Scuderia Ferrari, for their prize drive. The first of the three to be Ferrari drivers for a day and to slide into the cockpit was Marco Zipoli from Genoa, who set the third best time with a 1.21.725, while the second best performance in this mini-classification came from Rome’s Daniel Zampieri, in 1.21.279. Quickest was the young Mexican, Pablo Sanchez Lopez, the last man to get behind the wheel of the car, with a time of 1.21.068, which was good enough for eleventh overall on the day.

At the end of the session, the three drivers were bubbling with enthusiasm, just as were their three predecessors last year, when Ferrari, in collaboration with the ACI-CSAI created the opportunity for them to experience driving a car that had competed in the Formula 1 World Championship.

Afterwards, they explained how it felt during a short press conference. In charge of the programme, Luca Baldisserri was happy with the outcome “ The lads tackled the opportunity given them in a mature way, while this was a more difficult challenge than the one faced by those who drive at Fiorano last year. Here, there were other young drivers on track, all very keen to show their potential, while the track itself is more complicated. I believe that more of this type of event is the way to go for Formula 1.”

The quickest of the three, the Mexican, Pablo Sanchez Lopez, thanked everyone who had helped him realise his dream: “at first, it was difficult to deal with the power of this incredible car, then in the last few laps, even if I was struggling, it was absolutely fantastic.” Daniel Zampieri, who was second fastest, underlined the importance of the advice given by Andrea Bertolini, who was in Jerez in the role of driver coach. “Andrea followed us every step of the way and his help made this an unforgettable experience.” Marco Zipoli mentioned the huge difference between the Formula 1 and Formula 3 cars: “we learned so much, especially how much horsepower still separates us from Formula 1 and it was the best experience that an aspiring driver from this fantastic series could ever hope for.”

Unofficial Thursday times from Jerez:

1. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:17.418
2. Paul Di Resta, Force India, 1:18.736
3. Gary Paffett, McLaren, 1:18.746
4. Mike Conway, Brawn GP, 1:19.096
5. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams, 1:19.226
6. Bertrand Baguette, BMW Sauber, 1:19.356
7. Oliver Turvey, McLaren, 1:19.358
8. Marcus Ericsson, Brawn GP, 1:19.382
9. Lucas di Grassi, Renault, 1:19.602
10. JR Hildebrand, Force India, 1:19.873
11. Pablo Sanchez Lopez, Ferrari, 1:21. 147
12. Daniel Zampieri, Ferrari, 1:21.279
13. Marco Zipoli, Ferrari, 1:21.725
14. Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso, 1:22.493
15. Mirko Bortolotti, Toro Rosso, 1:23.271
16. Ho-Pin Tung, Renault, 1:32.477