Antonio Fuoco will remain part of the Ferrari Driver Academy for the 2019 season but not in a racing role as the new batch got together at Maranello.
Last week, 2018 European F3 champion Mick Schumacher was revealed as the latest addition in the Ferrari driver academy as the names of the other drivers was also released which did not feature Fuoco and Guanyu Zhou.
However, earlier in the day, Guanyu Zhou was announced as Renault’s new development driver in their academy from the 2019 F1 season. As for Antonio Fuoco, Ferrari has now confirmed his role with the FDA as a ‘consultant’ rather than a junior driver.
The Italian thus continues with the Ferrari family, whom he joined in 2013. Outside the Ferrari role, he serves a reserve driver for GEOX Dragon in the FIA Formula E Championship but it remains to be seen where he races in the 2019 season.
Meanwhile, Tuesday marked the first day of work for all the Ferrari junior drivers at Maranello as they gathered to prepare themselves for their respective 2019 season – only missing from the list was Marcus Armstrong.
The Kiwi is currently racing in the Toyota Racing Series where he is a joint leader with Liam Lawson. While the rest of the drivers have attended such events previously, it is the first for Schumacher who flew in from his showing in the 2019 Race of Champions in Mexico.
The German and the rest of the lot along with Fuoco were welcomed by the new Ferrari Team Principal, Mattia Binotto, its Sporting Director, Laurent Mekies, and Head of the FDA Technical Area, Marco Matassa at Maranello.
As known, Mick Schumacher is to race in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2019 with Prema, he will have Giuliano Alesi and Callum Ilott in the same series with the former racing with Trident, while the latter is reported to sign with Charouz Racing System.
Armstrong and Robert Shwartzman will race in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with the former already confirmed at Prema, while the latter also scheduled to join the Kiwi to compete for the Italian outfit in 2019.
Elsewhere, Enzo Fittipaldi will race in the new FIA Regional Formula 3 Championship with his team expected to be Prema as well after the Brazilian won the F4 title with them in 2018. Finally, Gianluca Petecof will graduate to race in Formula 4.
