Now, while the gentlemen drivers buckling their helmets and sliding into the plastic cast seats are unlikely to trouble the speeds achieved by the aforementioned Grand Prix greats, they are hardly here to enjoy the scenery either. Nor have they enjoyed the steeping stone that is a run in a lesser-powered single seater. Instead, each owner – who will have forked over close to two million euros/2.6 million dollars for F1 Clienti ‘club’ membership – spends a day or more testing their new F1 car at Ferrari’s official test track at Fiorano before being given the nod to attend a track day.
“The cars are not detuned,” explains Gene. “They are exactly the same spec as they were when they used to race. For someone to experience the highest G-Forces they’ll ever experience…their brain has to work so fast because everything goes so fast and the acceleration and braking forces are just so aggressive. The F1 Clienti is more exclusive, but I can see that the guys who really like to drive, and who are driving quite well, it gives them time in a car like no other can give you.”
Come ‘race’ day, each driver receives his own mechanic, and is provided with a network of team personnel – from tyre operatives to electronics experts, all of whom have intimate F1 or Ferrari experience – as well as one-on-one training with a professional driver. This weekend, that duty falls to Marc Gene, and he’s being kept pretty busy.
In the interests of safety, the F1 Ferraris take to the track in groups of two with adequate space in between (the last thing the Scuderia needs is a crumpled mass of wrecked carbon fibre where once there was a fleet of former Grand Prix winners), and follow up their five-six lap runs with a full debrief with the mechanics before heading back out again. Like the 599XX and FXX before them, the onus is on personal growth as a driver: racing would be missing the point.
Racing though proves an apt curtain closer for the Middle East’s inaugural Ferrari Racing Days, and as the ground stops shaking to the thundering roar of the 3.0-litre V10s and 2.4-litre V8s, the 30-strong 458 Challenge fleet are being fired into life for their first of two races this weekend.
Time to hit the grandstands.
– FULL GALLERY OF IMAGES FROM FERRARI RACING DAYS 2013 HERE – CLICK – Shots courtesy of David Benson
