Pietro Fittipaldi to drive ’19 Haas F1 car next week

Pietro Fittipaldi gets his big chance behind the wheel before sticking to simulations the rest of the year

Pietro Fittipaldi's check to the Haas team will allow him to drive the 2019 car 1 full day next week in Barcelona as pre-season Formula 1 testing gets underway.

"To have Pietro in the car is a big element for our simulator work," said Haas team boss Gunther Steiner.

"We're always trying to improve that.

"We need to have him in the car to validate if the simulator program is going well or not.

"This is vital to our program going forward."

"I'm really look forward to the test," said Fittipaldi.

"I got to test the 2018 car at the end of last year and now I get to try the '19 car in pre-season testing.

"The main focus on the test will be to assist the team to develop the car as much as possible before the first race of the season.

"I'm sure there'll be a lot of test items the team will want to go through.

"We'll want to see how reliable the new car is, I'm sure we'll be aiming for a lot of miles.

"The goal at the end of the day, as a driver, is to go as fast as possible, to drive the car as fast as you can, but it's also to give the team really good feedback.

"That's crucial to the development of the car before the first race."

Haas Test Drivers Next Week

Monday: Romain Grosjean
Tuesday: Kevin Magnussen
Wednesday: Grosjean AM/Fittipaldi PM
Thursday: Fittipaldi AM/Magnussen PM