Ferrari driver academy Florida Winter Series

[steve nielsen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no6u5...ature=youtu.be

www.floridawinterseries.com/

a new series organised by the Ferrari Driver Academy driving "F3 like" Taatus Formula Abarth cars.


Collective test: 22 January, Homestead Speedway
Round 1: 25 - 27 January 2014 Sebring Raceway
Round 2: 3 – 5 February 2014 Palm Beach International Raceway
Round 3: 12 – 14 February 2014 Homestead Speedway RC
Round 4: 17 – 19 February 2014 Homestead Speedway RC Mod


drivers confirmed: Jules Bianchi, Raffaele Marciello , Ed Jones , Dennis Van Der Laar and Max Verstappen

[steve nielsen]

http://formula1.ferrari.com/news/flo...mes-entry-list

http://verstappen.nl/news/1676.html

[el_cat]

Bianchi?? Interesting - I assume with the first round finishing the day before the Jerez test he'll be letting Chilton take the reigns early on.

Fair play to him if this is true, it's not often you see an F1 driver drop into a lesser series to keep themselves sharp (if that is indeed what he is doing)

[LavidaLoca]

Entry List

Alex Bosak


Antonio Fuoco


Dennis van de Laar


Ed Jones


Lance Stroll


Max Verstappen


Nicholas Latifi


Raffaele Marciello


Takashi Kasai


Tatiana Calderon


Vasily Romanov


Jules Bianchi
Leonardo Pulcini



Luis Sa Silva



Simona de Silvestro

[steve nielsen]

seat fitting for Max Verstappen in Homestead

[kipper]

Originally Posted by el_cat

Fair play to him if this is true, it's not often you see an F1 driver drop into a lesser series to keep themselves sharp (if that is indeed what he is doing)

I'm assuming that he is done the championship to win the favour of Ferrari as his presence does add instant credibility to the championship. That said, he does have the most to lose, if example Tatiana, were to beat him on occasion. It'll also be interesting to see how the likes of Marciello and Verstappen (who do seem to highly rated at the moment) compare.

[ptclaus98]

Beat him on occasion? You guys do realize that this is a glorified HPDE, right?

[Rob29]

Originally Posted by ptclaus98

Beat him on occasion? You guys do realize that this is a glorified HPDE, right?

What the heck is a HPDENever seen this acronym in relation to racing.As a fan of both Simona & Tatiana I will be following this series closely

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by ptclaus98

Beat him on occasion? You guys do realize that this is a glorified HPDE, right?

actualy it's Formula Abarth

http://www.acisportitalia.it/abarth/

[Hawkwood]

It's a shame Bianchi and de Silvestro are only doing one race, I wonder if they'll compete in the same one or will Ferrari try to spread out the established talent?

[ptclaus98]

Originally Posted by Rob29

What the heck is a HPDENever seen this acronym in relation to racing.As a fan of both Simona & Tatiana I will be following this series closely

High Performance Driver Education. It's a racing school. Bianchi is there because he's in the FDA. The only real surprise in the group is Simona.

[ivanalesi]

I expect Marciello to beat them because he has raced and won with this car, so he's there as the benchmark. Bianchi is the benchmark for adaptability.
It will be lots of fun on these bumpy tracks, you've got to push in this car

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by ptclaus98

High Performance Driver Education. It's a racing school. Bianchi is there because he's in the FDA. The only real surprise in the group is Simona.

no, these cars are raced in Europe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_Abarth

[steve nielsen]

Max Verstappen continues to amaze

beating Rafaelle Marciello by 1 second to take P1 in free practice 4 in Sebring in his first ever raceweekend in a car.(Fuoco P3 +1.1 Van Der Laar P4 +1.4)

here's the live timing for the event

http://lt2.alkamelsystems.com/index....e-a77426d664a6

qualifying tomorow at 16.00 CET and 17.00 CET, first race at 21.45 CET

2nd race monday 17.00 CET 3rd race monday 21.45 CET

[jondownunder]

Interesting to note Ben Anderson has taken part in practice. Presumably writing a piece for Autosport?

http://floridawinterseries.com/Results.html#

[Juntos]

12-car entry? They better close the shop soon.

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by Juntos

12-car entry? They better close the shop soon.

not too much, Bianchi was supposed to race as well, but I guess they did'nt think the new Marussia would be ready for the first test

here's Max Verstappen doing some practice starts for his first ever race in a car(filmed by his father Jos)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTOZmeXzy9I

[el_cat]

Hang on, looking through all the practice time Max Verstappen was consistently at least half a second quicker than Marciello?

I'm sure there is more to it than it looks, but thats pretty impressive right? Is Verstappen the real deal?

[steve nielsen]

seems like it since he also took pole for race 2 and 3

Qualifying 1 results:



drivers second best times make up race 2 grid, Verstappen takes pole for that race

Qualifying 2 results



1st race tonight 21.45 CET

[steve nielsen]

Race 1 results:


1 Dennis Van Der Laar
2 Antonio Fuoco
3 Nicholas Latifi
4 Max Verstappen
5 Rafaelle Marciello
6 Ed Jones
7 Lance Stroll
8 Ben Anderson
9 Vasily Romanov
10 Alex Bosak
11 Takeshi Kasai
12 Tatjana Calderon(DNF)

the race started behind the safetycar because of the rain

when the safetycar went in Verstappen took the lead, but a small mistake 2 laps before the finish caused him to drop back to 4th, but he did set the fastes lap of the race in the final lap.

too bad, would have been a major achievement winning your first race in a car, especialy in the wet.

[nobster]

16 year old Max Verstappen has won his first car race in his second car racing weekend, this boy is going to be the real deal! He destroyed practically everyone over the world in karting last years, he is just getting started but watch out he is coming....