Brazilian driver Gianluca Petecof graduates from karting to open-wheel racing as he joins Prema. The Paulist driver will race for the Italian team in the ADAC F4 and the Italian F4 Championship
Gianluca Petecof steps up from karting racing series to open-wheel in 2018. The Brazilian will get his first taste of a real formula car in 2018, as he unites with Prema. He is also bond to the Ferrari Drivers Academy, so he is a talent to keep an eye on.
Racing with Prema is very demanding Petecof is one of the few Brazilian drivers of the next generation, and after Felipe Massa left Formula One, the main game has no drivers from the Southamerican country. This is why Petecof has a lot of pressure on his shoulders.
He finished sixth in the last CIK World Championship, and in 2018 he will race not only in the prestigious ADAC F4 series, also in the Italian championship. This schedule was also followed by Mick Schumacher a couple years ago, and it is useful to learn how the car works.
Nowadays, young drivers have almost no ontrack experience, and during weekends, there are almost no sessions to run. That is why Petecof will be under pressure. He knows barely any track, and by racing with Prema, he will need to be fast.
Being fast, although, is not a problem for him. He won the Florida Winter Tour back in 2014, against names like the little brothers of Nicholas Latifi and Devlin DeFrancesco. The Florida Winter Tour is one of the top championship in American Soil, and karting drivers from all arround the continent get together to race each other.
The first race of his 2018 F4 year will be in Oschersleben, next April. One week later, the Italian F4 championship will begin in Adria.