30/01/2024
NEWS STORY
Oliver Bearman is appointed reserve driver at Ferrari, while Arthur Leclerc is to be one of the Maranello outfit's development drivers.
Bearman, currently racing in Formula 2 with the Prema team, takes on the role of reserve driver, ready to step in if one of the race drivers is incapacitated, a role he will share with Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Shwartzman, who are taking part in the WEC at the wheel of the Ferrari 499 P Hypercar, numbers 51 and 83 respectively.
Arthur Leclerc joins Antonio Fuoco and Davide Rigon in the role of development driver, a job, courtesy of the strict limits on track testing, that entails mainly working in the simulator, on car development, set-up work and updates introduced during the season.
The Monegasque is also racing this year in the Italian GT championship in a Scuderia Baldini 27, while Fuoco is racing in the hyperclass in WEC in the number 50 499 P and Rigon races in the same series, but in the LMGT3 class with the Vista AF Corse GT3 team.
As from next week, Bearman and Leclerc will start racking up miles for the Scuderia, as the team is tackling a three day Pirelli test session at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit. On 29 and 30 January Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will be at the wheel of last year's SF23, carrying out tests for the tyre supplier.
Also on the 29th, Arthur Leclerc will get his very first taste of driving an F1 car, from the cockpit of the 2022 F1-75, while on Tuesday 30th, Charles and Carlos will share both the SF23 and the F1-75.
On the 31st, Bearman, who drove in the FP1 sessions for Haas in Mexico and Abu Dhabi last year, will be alone on track in the F1-75.