Armstrong fulfills a lifelong dream with Ferrari F1 test

New Zealand driver Marcus Armstrong ticked off a lifelong dream this week when he was one of seven drivers invited to test a 2018 car for Scuderia Ferrari.

The Kiwi is the first NZ driver ever to join the Ferrari Driver Academy and is the first to test for Ferrari since the days of Chris Amon.

“This has been my dream ever since I can remember. First, to test in an F1 car and second to do so for Ferrari. It’s been an amazing experience. Obviously it’s so very fast, but also the team operation is incredible.”

Marcus Armstrong (middle)

Under category rules driver prospects are not allowed to test in more recent machinery.

Armstrong has also confirmed he will switch to the French DAMS team for the FIA Formula 2 season, which starts at Bahrain next month.

New Zealand will be represented in Formula 2 this year by two drivers: Pukekohe’s Liam Lawson lines up for the Hitech team raced with last year in FIA Formula 3. The pair are backed by rival elite driver development programmes: Armstrong has the Ferrari Driver Academy shaping his career, while Lawson is a Red Bull junior driver. Both driver programmes have direct links to Formula 1.

The 2021 FIA Formula 2 season starts at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit on March 27 and 28. There are three races in each event this year, and eight events in total. All F2 races are at Formula 1 events.

Mark Baker has been working in automotive PR and communications for more than two decades. For much longer than that he has been a motorsport journalist, photographer and competitor, witness to most of the most exciting and significant motorsport trends and events of the mid-late 20th Century. His earliest memories of motorsport were trips to races at Ohakea in the early 1960s, and later of annual summer pilgrimages to watch Shellsport racers and Mini 7s at Bay Park and winter sorties into forests around Kawerau and Rotorua to see the likes of Russell Brookes, Ari Vatanen and Mike Marshall ply their trade in group 4 Escorts. Together with Murray Taylor and TV producer/director Dave Hedge he has been responsible for helping to build New Zealand’s unique Toyota Racing Series into a globally recognized event brand under category managers Barrie and Louise Thomlinson. Now working for a variety of automotive and mainstream commercial clients, Mark has a unique perspective on recent motor racing history and the future career paths of our best and brightest young racers.

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