13/01/2015
NEWS STORY
Fresh from his Formula E exploits in Buenos Aries, Jean-Eric Vergne has begun his F1 duties for Ferrari at Maranello.
The 24-year-old spent the day at the Maranello facility, meeting engineers and management, as well as getting to grips with his new "office," the F1 simulator.
"The first day as a Ferrari man is really something special," said the Frenchman, who was dropped by Toro Rosso last year after twice missing promotion to sister team Red Bull.
"Last night, I took a short trip around Maranello and I realised that this is a city that lives and breathes Ferrari," he added. "This year, I will be doing a lot of work in the simulator and this first introduction to it was very useful. I know Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen well and I can't wait to work with them."
Since losing his F1 seat at Toro Rosso, Vergne has made two appearances in Formula E with Andretti Autosport. In his debut race, in Uruguay, he took pole position but lost the lead at the start to Nelson Piquet. He subsequently retook the lead, but after the pit stops lost it again to Sebastien Buemi. He continued to harry Buemi until retiring with a broken suspension two laps before the end of the race.
In Bueno Aires last weekend he started sixth, and subsequently ran as high as second in an incident filled race which eventually saw him fall back to sixth having missed his braking point twice and then having to slow in order to save energy.
Chris Balfe