Ferrucci: Quickly to F1 is out of the picture

Editor

Santino Ferrucci concedes he is not going to suddenly jump up from GP3 to Formula 1 despite testing for Haas at Silverstone.

The American was in action for Formula 1’s newcomers, putting in the laps in the VF-16 on both days of the Silverstone test.

Although Ferrucci impressed the team, he admits it is not going to be an easy road moving from GP3, where he races with DAMS, into F1.

“Quickly to F1 is out of the picture, I’ve got a lot of learning to do,” Ferrucci told ESPN.

“It just depends on how our season goes from here onward we’ll make a decision sometime after Spa, Monza. Hopefully we get to step up in GP2 but if not another season in GP3 never hurts.”

However, should he have a quick rise up the order, the 18-year-old won’t be the only teenager in Formula 1 as Red Bull Racing have Max Verstappen.

Ferrucci, though, acknowledges that the Dutchman is not the norm.

“I think everyone will agree Max is special,” he said. “I got to race against him in F3 so I can say he’s a really good driver, really smart and really clever.

“To go from karting to F3 to F1 is something you don’t see every day – the only other driver that comes to mind who did that was Kimi Raikkonen.

“It’s probably not something in my plans, I prefer to progress a little bit more and be a bit more mature when I get in the car. No need to rush anything.”