Ferrari Signs 11-year-old Canadian to Development Program

[Cynon]

Ferrari refuses to be outdone by McLaren in signing younger drivers.

I mean, seriously... REALLY?!?!

But I think the part that should be noted is the nationality -- a North American driver -- which Ferrari has been wanting for quite awhile. Ferrari has always shown favor to North Americans, including a certain Canadian folk hero who's son became a folk singer...

[Captain Hammer]

I mean, seriously... REALLY?!?!

Given that the likes of Vettel are twenty-two/twenty-three years old, and with the sheer number of feeder series that a driver has to work his or her way through, is it really that big of a surprise that the teams are signing them to development programs at a young age?

[CarlosFerreira]

I mean, seriously... REALLY?!?!

Given that the likes of Vettel are twenty-two/twenty-three years old, and with the sheer number of feeder series that a driver has to work his or her way through, is it really that big of a surprise that the teams are signing them to development programs at a young age?

At 11? Yes.

[eagleash]

Was there a report a few months ago that someone had put an even younger lad on some sort of contract?
Cannot remember who...? Anyone?
This sort of thing happens in other sports. Associated schoolboy forms in football & junior teams in County Cricket. [In an interview on TMS during the last test Tom Chaplin of Keane recalled playing for Sussex against Freddie Flintoff (Lancashire) aged about 10 or 11]

[coops]

Was there a report a few months ago that someone had put an even younger lad on some sort of contract?
Cannot remember who...? Anyone?
]

I posted about McLaren signing up Jan Magnussens son but I think he's a teenager.

[eagleash]

Was there a report a few months ago that someone had put an even younger lad on some sort of contract?
Cannot remember who...? Anyone?
]

I posted about McLaren signing up Jan Magnussens son but I think he's a teenager.

Thanks for the info.....but agreed, don't think that was it......

[Myrvold]

Hamilton got picked up by Ron when he was... 10? 11? 12? vettel was picked up by Red Bull and Helmut Marko from the young karting days too.

[IdeFan]

Marks a very strange turn for Ferrari's recruitment policy. In recent times Ferrari have used their money and heritage to recruit established, proven drivers. If they have a vacancy they will sign up the likes of Mansell, Berger, Prost, Raikkonen and Alonso. Hell even when they were at their lowest ebb in the mid 90s they managed to sign up Schumacher. To my knowledge the last rookie driver they signed was Gilles Villeneuve, and I am sure they havn't had a rookie since at least 1990.

Perhaps their lack of cheap, young and talented test driver to cover for Massa has prompted the change of heart, though this is a very long term solution!

[shinji]

Hard to believe that even if he were to make it, and became the youngest F1 driver ever, it'd still be 2018 by the time he makes his debut.

Also I find it hard to believe that I'm 5 years older than him.

[Nessafox]

Marks a very strange turn for Ferrari's recruitment policy. In recent times Ferrari have used their money and heritage to recruit established, proven drivers. If they have a vacancy they will sign up the likes of Mansell, Berger, Prost, Raikkonen and Alonso. Hell even when they were at their lowest ebb in the mid 90s they managed to sign up Schumacher. To my knowledge the last rookie driver they signed was Gilles Villeneuve, and I am sure they havn't had a rookie since at least 1990.

Perhaps their lack of cheap, young and talented test driver to cover for Massa has prompted the change of heart, though this is a very long term solution!

actually gilles villeneuve drove first for mclaren, but he was pretty inexperienced anyway.


the good point about contracting young drivers is that you can completely form them like you want them. Problem is, if he needs to make decisions on his own, it becomes difficult, i think a driver like hamilton shows us both the up - and downsides of this.

[Nessafox]

Also I find it hard to believe that I'm 5 years older than him.

it's indeed weird when you're young yourself (and honestly, you are ) and drivers are even younger.
Firstly you're looking up to the big names, and suddenly people who are younger than yourself are becoming succesful, and before you know it, there are drivers who could be your children, grandchildren, etc.

[thehemogoblin]

Marks a very strange turn for Ferrari's recruitment policy. In recent times Ferrari have used their money and heritage to recruit established, proven drivers. If they have a vacancy they will sign up the likes of Mansell, Berger, Prost, Raikkonen and Alonso. Hell even when they were at their lowest ebb in the mid 90s they managed to sign up Schumacher. To my knowledge the last rookie driver they signed was Gilles Villeneuve, and I am sure they havn't had a rookie since at least 1990.

Perhaps their lack of cheap, young and talented test driver to cover for Massa has prompted the change of heart, though this is a very long term solution!

But haven't they put their drivers in lower-ranked teams first? At least with Felipe Massa and Sauber, that happened.

[watka]

Ferrari refuses to be outdone by McLaren in signing younger drivers.

I mean, seriously... REALLY?!?!

But I think the part that should be noted is the nationality -- a North American driver -- which Ferrari has been wanting for quite awhile. Ferrari has always shown favor to North Americans, including a certain Canadian folk hero who's son became a folk singer...

Don't forget Uncle Jacques!

[mario]

Marks a very strange turn for Ferrari's recruitment policy. In recent times Ferrari have used their money and heritage to recruit established, proven drivers. If they have a vacancy they will sign up the likes of Mansell, Berger, Prost, Raikkonen and Alonso. Hell even when they were at their lowest ebb in the mid 90s they managed to sign up Schumacher. To my knowledge the last rookie driver they signed was Gilles Villeneuve, and I am sure they havn't had a rookie since at least 1990.

Perhaps their lack of cheap, young and talented test driver to cover for Massa has prompted the change of heart, though this is a very long term solution!

It is a bit odd - Ferrari have traditionally worked on the basis that they only take a driver who has shown themselves capable of competing and have a fair bit of experience. Besides, to a certain extent, the replacement driver is not such an issue now, since they can call on Fisichella as well now - ok, he has his flaws, but if he was called up, then he would be capable of doing a solid enough job, I would wager.

Even though recently there has been a trend - including Ferrari - of establishing young driver programs in the hope of finding a new Hamilton or Vettel (i.e. a young and promising driver that can be moulded for what the team want), this is quite early on in somebody's career to be making that sort of decision. Although I suspect that Ferrari will give him good financial support to further his career (and goodness knows how many talented drivers have to abandon their goals because of financial problems), it is going to put him under a lot of pressure to perform - perhaps too much pressure at such a young age.

[muttley]

That's not too strange. Football clubs have been signing young kids into their youth teams for quite some time.
The same thing happening in motorsports doesn't surprise me at all.

Actually, since motorsports are very expensive, if a sponsorship or a sign-in to a youth program can give a better access to the sport to talented youngsters by lifting the financial burden from the families' back, then it's a very good idea.

...unless the kids get too stressed out by the experience.

[Nessafox]

on the other hand, if you can slowly build up the stress, he will handle stress better than the regular drivers. But obviously this isn't the case yet, unless a team suddenly employs an army of psychologists

[Waris]

on the other hand, if you can slowly build up the stress, he will handle stress better than the regular drivers. But obviously this isn't the case yet, unless a team suddenly employs an army of psychologists

I believe psychologists can sometimes do more harm than good.

[Cynon]

This topic came up on another forum I frequent and someone has actually seen Lance Stroll, the aforementioned 11 year old, race in karts. Apparently, he has some kind of family relation fairly high up in the Ferrari company and isn't all that great.

Hmmm...

[eagleash]

Apropos nothing much; Lotus have apparently signed a 16 year old to help with their development programme.
At that age I wouldn't have thought that he had the experience to help develop an F1 car. He is however Malaysian. I wonder if he has a relative high up in Proton?
Can someone remind me of the rules applicable to the new teams with regard to testing? Thanks.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85857

[shinji]

Apropos nothing much; Lotus have apparently signed a 16 year old to help with their development programme.
At that age I wouldn't have thought that he had the experience to help develop an F1 car. He is however Malaysian. I wonder if he has a relative high up in Proton?
Can someone remind me of the rules applicable to the new teams with regard to testing? Thanks.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85857

16? There go my Lotus drive hopes.

[mario]

Apropos nothing much; Lotus have apparently signed a 16 year old to help with their development programme.
At that age I wouldn't have thought that he had the experience to help develop an F1 car. He is however Malaysian. I wonder if he has a relative high up in Proton?
Can someone remind me of the rules applicable to the new teams with regard to testing? Thanks.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85857

16? There go my Lotus drive hopes.

That, and the fact that you don't happen to have a few million in sponsorship money which you can give Gascoyne and Fernandes.

[shinji]

Apropos nothing much; Lotus have apparently signed a 16 year old to help with their development programme.
At that age I wouldn't have thought that he had the experience to help develop an F1 car. He is however Malaysian. I wonder if he has a relative high up in Proton?
Can someone remind me of the rules applicable to the new teams with regard to testing? Thanks.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85857

16? There go my Lotus drive hopes.

That, and the fact that you don't happen to have a few million in sponsorship money which you can give Gascoyne and Fernandes.

That too yes.

[Phoenix]

If there are only straight line tests, it's OK, I guess, but if they ask him to test something else by chance, poor guy...

[Cynon]

Apropos nothing much; Lotus have apparently signed a 16 year old to help with their development programme.
At that age I wouldn't have thought that he had the experience to help develop an F1 car. He is however Malaysian. I wonder if he has a relative high up in Proton?
Can someone remind me of the rules applicable to the new teams with regard to testing? Thanks.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85857

16? There go my Lotus drive hopes.

Yeah, 16. But if you have enough dosh you could get yourself a drive. Just look at Chanoch Nissany! That means I, at 21, still have a shot.

[eagleash]

Lotus have today run 16 yr old Nabil Jeffri at Duxford, conducting aerodynamic tests, which are apparently allowed.

There is a link but I have enough incendiary fruit products.... thank you.

[mario]

Lotus have today run 16 yr old Nabil Jeffri at Duxford, conducting aerodynamic tests, which are apparently allowed.

There is a link but I have enough incendiary fruit products.... thank you.

This must be part of the straight line tests that all of the teams are allowed to do (I think that they are allowed to use four days a year for straight line tests during the season - Mclaren spent a day in Spain testing their blown diffuser (they wanted somewhere hotter to test whether they had correctly judged the cooling of the floor), as have Mercedes (at Rockingham, I believe)).
There is a short article here about what the team have been up to during the tests.
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Vi ... uxford.htm

What does surprise me, though, is that the wings look like they are too steep and large for them to be a Monza package, surely? That goes especially for the rear wing.

[Walsh_e]

Young driver programs are the norm these days although they have been around for a lot longer (the Elf program of the 70's off the top of my head) plus you would have F1 teams with lower Formula cars to help drivers through. Ferrari have pretty much always resisted this and simply gone for the best drivers they can (with the exception of Gilles who had only a few races experience, but he only got the drive because Tamby signed for McLaren instead of Ferrari).

It's good practice to develop your own talent as can be shown in other sports but I think these days drivers are being rushed through too fast, both Hamilton and Vettel have made some incredibly stupid mistakes since coming into F1 and I can't help but feel that more time spent in junior formula's would have helped them.

[IdeFan]

What does surprise me, though, is that the wings look like they are too steep and large for them to be a Monza package, surely? That goes especially for the rear wing.

The single race at Monza probably isn't worth wasting a day on, they say the focus is now on 2011 so this is probably the last update for this car to be used after Monza, which is mostly medium to high downforce.

Remember straight line tests are mostly for calibration between the wind tunnel and track, so they may go though several iterations of this package in the tunnel before it sees the track, so its probably a bit too late to test for Monza anyway.

[ADx_Wales]

Not for the first time.
Not for the last.

And no wonder the ladder series are languising, with apalling entry numbers, all the drivers want to get into F1 as if it's the be all and end all, and are miserable because they arent good enough for the series above.

Nobody wants to just be a "Jobbing" racing driver.