Sauber driver Sergio Perez drove a Ferrari Formula 1 car for the first time during the team’s latest driver academy test day at Fiorano, which also featured GP2 front-runner Jules Bianchi.
Although Mexican youngster Perez is currently racing for Ferrari’s customer engine team, the Italian marque signed the 2011 rookie up to their driver academy at the start of the year so he can have access to the team’s facilities and knowledge.
And on Thursday, following a two-day stint on the squad’s simulator, Perez got behind the wheel of the Ferrari’s 2009 car, the F60, for a morning of running on their test track, setting a best time of 1m00.650s.
“This was a really special day for me,” said the Mexican.
“I want to thank Ferrari for giving me this chance to improve and learn, given the limited number of testing opportunities during the year.
“Driving a Ferrari was a dream for me and it’s also important for my career, learning with a team like this and experiencing a different approach to the work.”
Academy head Luca Baldisserri was impressed by Perez’s swift acclimatisation to the Ferrari cockpit and the 21-year-old’s general approach to the test.
“Today, we followed two different programmes with Perez and Bianchi,” said Baldisserri.
“Sergio impressed, despite this being his first time at the wheel of a Ferrari. He proved to be aggressive and quick right from the start and was able to adapt to the car in a very short space of time.
He is very mature for his age, displaying an understanding that goes beyond the time he has spent driving single-seaters.”
Ferrari’s decision to snap up Perez to their academy has prompted speculation that he could be in the running to replace Felipe Massa alongside Fernando Alonso in their race team should the Brazilian’s contract not be renewed beyond 2012.
The driver himself though says he is very much focused on his Sauber career and making the most of his current opportunities within Ferrari.
“I think there is room for me to do well where I am and that’s my current target,” he said.
“It’s impossible to say how things will go and my dream is to become world champion and it would be nice if it could happen with a team like this one.
“I have got a lot out of this time with the Ferrari Driver Academy. The work on the simulator, the meetings with the engineers are all things that will help me over the rest of the season and in general in the future.”
Frenchman Bianchi, who finished third in this season’s GP2 Series for the second straight year, ended up with a marginally faster time than Perez following his 70-lap stint (1m00.213s), his work focussed on correlation assessments between the track and wind tunnel data.
He hopes the mileage is another step on the ladder to a full-time F1 career, while confirming his participation in November’s end-of-season young driver test.
“We did a lot of laps and once again it was a very useful experience for me,” said the 22-year-old.
“These laps all count a lot towards the future I’d like to have in Formula 1. Now, I’m looking forward to the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi and it will be very interesting to go from the 2009 car to the 2011 one, as it will be a good opportunity for me to try elements like DRS and KERS for the very first time.”
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