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Ferrari kicks off young driver development program

In the ever-increasingly competitive world of F1 racing, many teams have begun scouting for drivers earlier and earlier in their careers. In the past, smaller teams would scout the talent, and then the bigger teams would poach them with their vast resources. But in the wake of the immense success of McLaren's rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton, nobody can afford to rest on their proverbial laurels. Now, following existing programs at rival teams Renault, Honda, Toyota and McLaren, Ferrari is launching a young driver development program of its own. The initial news came in last week from team principal Stefano Domenicali, and has now been substantiated by a new joint announcement from Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo in conjunction with Gino Macaluso, head of Italian racing federation ACI-CSAI. The Scuderia will offer test drives to Mirko Bortollotti, Edoardo Piscopo and Salvatore Cicatelli – the top three finishers in this year's Italian Formula 3 championship. If Ferrari decides to contract any of the drivers for a future race seat, they would be the first Italian driver for the Scuderia since the colorful Ivan Capelli (who, incidentally, won the Italian F3 title in 1983) raced the crimson cars way back in 1992. Now excuse us while we go sign up for next year's Italian F3 season.
posted : 10/27/2008 @4:08:45 PM
Background image confirms Ferrari 430 Scuderia Spider

Ferrari is either getting strategic or careless. The company usually keeps details about its upcoming models hush-hush until the vehicle is ready to make its debut, but lately Maranello seems to have more leaks than a pasta strainer. The latest is a screen-cap that seems to confirm the speculated 430 Scuderia Spider. Based on the fixed-roof 430 Scuderia, the roadster version has been speculatively rendered and anticipated to debut at the company's upcoming mega-event at Mugello, the same place where they took the wraps off the FXX Evoluzione last year. The additional weight of an open-top version of the lightweight supercar is expected to be offset by the implementation of the company's new seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. The image above, which seems to confirm the model's imminence, comes from a video of the new Ferrari California that was just unveiled in Maranello and Los Angeles ahead of its debut at the upcoming Paris Motor Show. In the background of the video behind a Ferrari spokesman is a studio photograph of the rumored 430 Scuderia drop-top. We'll just have to wait until November 5 when the Ferrari Challenge heads to Mugello to know for sure.
posted : 10/2/2008 @3:45:48 PM
F1 hopefuls head to Jerez, Spain for Vettel's seat at STR

If you think you've got what it takes to be an F1 driver, you might want to grab a flight to Jerez, Spain, on the double, as Scuderia Toro Rosso bosses Gerhard Berger and Franz Tost have just landed there to evaluate new drivers for next year. Although they're clearly happy with the performance of Sebastian Vettel, who took a landmark victory at last weekend's Italian Grand Prix, the young German driver is being called up to the Red Bull senior team, leaving a vacant seat at STR. Among the drivers Berger and Tost are evaluating are Honda-supported on-again-off-again F1 pilot Takuma Sato and the team's own reserve driver Sebastien Buemi, who just placed sixth in the GP2 Series. However Berger, himself a ten-time grand prix winner, says they won't make a final decision until November or December. With two-time world champion Fernando Alonso's future still up in the air, BMW's Nick Heidfeld, Honda's veteran Rubens Barrichello and Renault's Nelsinho Piquet could be up for grabs next season, making for enticing prospects to fill Vettel's vacancy after the team has shown considerable promise with last weekend's performance.
posted : 10/2/2008 @2:09:29 PM
No Fair! F1 teams lobby for engine parity

You'd think that the teams in Formula One would all be striving to eek out every little performance advantage they can, right? Well, not quite. It turns out that some of the teams are lobbying behind closed doors to equalize engine performance across the series. The development has been prompted by Sebastian Vettel's landmark domination at this past weekend's Italian Grand Prix. The young German drives for Scuderia Toro Rosso, which essentially – and controversially – runs the same cars as the senior Red Bull Racing team, only with one major difference: the engine. While RBR uses Renault engines, STR is powered by Ferrari. And according to Red Bull chief Christian Horner, the performance advantage which Ferrari has cultivated over Renault is what allowed Vettel to beat out the Renault-powered Red Bull cars, to say nothing of the rest of the field. Horner insists that Renault has obeyed the engine development freeze currently in place, while Ferrari, BMW and McLaren partner Mercedes-Benz have taken advantage of loopholes that has allowed them to find as much as 30 extra horsepower. "We don't need an engine formula to completely open up," said Horner, "but there should be a parity as much as possible among the engine suppliers – otherwise we will all end up with one engine at the end of the day."
posted : 9/26/2008 @7:32:58 AM
Rain Supreme: Big surprises at soaked Italian Grand Prix

Racing fans are used to tuning in on the Saturday of a grand prix weekend to find the words "Scuderia" and "Ferrari" at the top of the qualifying list. But interrupted by the words "Toro Rosso"? Never. But that was only the first of many surprises at this weekend's Italian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel shockingly secured his first pole position thanks to some exceedingly brilliant driving joined with good strategy on the part of his Ferrari-powered Scuderia Toro Rosso team, which wisely stuck with the extreme wet tires on the rain-soaked Monza circuit while others experimented with intermediate treads. The young German's unprecedented qualifying performance put him in the record books as the youngest driver ever to secure a pole position, supplanting Fernando Alonso's previous record. But with so many other drivers with more experience and backed by teams with immensely bigger budgets, surely Vettel's lead would quickly be stolen by an established front-runner.
posted : 9/23/2008 @11:17:47 PM
F1: Ferrari holds on to its Finn -- Raikkonen extends to 2010Ferrari announced during the first practice day of this weekend's Monza GP that Kimi Raikkonen's contract has been extended by one year. This mean's he's locked into service with the scuderia until the end of 2010, which is the same time Felipe Massa's contract runs out. Terms of the extension weren't disclosed, but the fact that Ferrari re-signed the Iceman means they aren't nearly as worried about his recent form as the rest of the paddock appears to be. It also means that Fernando Alonso can now decide where he wants to go for at least two years and get the silly season officially over with.
posted : 9/23/2008 @11:05:45 PM
Rendered Speculation: Ferrari 430 Scuderia Spider

Lies. Damn lies and speculation. Rumor would be another way to put it, as word of a potential convertible version of the 430 Scuderia spreads across cyberspace. Tentatively referred to as the 430 Scuderia Spider, the roadster would naturally be based on the lightweight, Enzo-rivaling 430 Scuderia supercar, but with the roof chopped off. Various reports have given conflicting information about what kind of roof mechanism would be fitted to the Spideria, including a retractable hard-top similar to that found on the new California, a manual cloth roof to keep weight down, or the same automatic fabric top from the conventional F430 Spider. Or maybe no roof at all, who knows. The wide range of speculation leads us to chalk this up to pure rumor. The removal of structural rigidity and the addition of weight would seem antithetical to the Scuderia's entire raison d'etre. However the prevailing reports suggest that the Spider will also get the California's new seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, be produced in a limited series of 300 and be unveiled on November 5 at the Ferrari Challenge weekend in Mugello... the same event where Ferrari unveiled the FXX Evoluzione last year. Jon Sibal, the skilled supercar illustrator we've come to know and trust, has presented a few renderings of what the 430 Scuderia Spider could look like, which in our eye looks right on the money.
posted : 9/23/2008 @9:50:48 PM
VIDEO: Schumi shows off Ferrari 430 Scuderia to customers

Not that the deal would need to be sweetened, but buying the latest Ferrari supercar comes with perks. For a group of European customers who came to Maranello to take possession of their new 430 Scuderias, that included a hands-on advanced driving course to show them what their new rides could do. And who better to demonstrate the capabilities of the fastest car ever to lap Fiorano than the driver who helped develop it? Follow the jump and you'll find a video of Michael Schumacher glad-handing the millionaires and their new rides around Ferrari's private on-site test track, posting hot laps and drifting around the wet handling course. Prepare to be jealous.
more ...
posted : 9/1/2008 @6:12:35 PM

Ferrari Scuderia Helmet as cool as actual car? No.

If you have the money, good taste, and connections to score the 510 hp F430 Scuderia, you likely know what the lightweight supercar from Maranello is capable of. When Ferrari decides to produce an exotic with 60 millisecond shifts and a 5.4 pound-per-pony ratio, you just know that it's track worthy. That means you're going to need something to protect your noggin when you head out to the road course. German helmet maker Schuberth Helme was commissioned to create head gear that exudes Ferrari coolness while also providing comfortable, lightweight protection for the driver. A quick glance at the photo above proves the mission was accomplished.

The helmet sports the dual racing strip of the Scuderia, and the exposed carbon fiber is good looking enough to negate the need for any manner of paint decoration. Four slotted air vents keep the head cool, and since the helmet is made of carbon fiber, its total weight is a little over two pounds. The helmet also sports a UV-protected visor to keep the sun out of your eyes, too. If you've got the money to spring for a Scuderia, you may as well go the extra mile and get one of the coolest-looking helmets on earth, regardless of the cost.

posted : 8/8/2008 @1:30:38 PM
Ferrari: Schumacher didn't crash the prototype ScuderiaFollowing yesterday's report that Michael Schumacher had crashed a prototype Ferrari 430 Scuderia on the Nurburgring, some things have come into focus, but little has become any clearer. Ferrari insists that, although Schumi had been driving the car that day, it was actually the factory's road car test driver Raffaele de Simone who was driving when the car hit the guardrail at 250 km/h. Photographs show that the 7-time world champion had been driving the car with his young son Mick – himself just starting out in karting – riding shotgun... with neither of them wearing helmets. Meanwhile, though the car is being described as a prototype, nothing about the exterior of the car appears different (aside from the Perspex sliding windows, and of course the "aerodynamic modifications" around the rear left wheel), and though the car was described as a right-off, the damage looks quite minimal for a 155-mph collision.
posted : 8/7/2008 @9:32:34 PM
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