Ferrari Driver Academy open to all for a fee

(PVM) The once exclusive Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA), which rewarded promising young racing drivers on merit, is going commercial and will now be open to all young aspiring race drivers at a fee starting in 2011.

The Academy’s “headmaster" Luca Baldisserri explained, “The Ferrari Driver Academy 2011 will be developed in three stages. The first called the base, then the intermediate and finally the advanced. [In January] we’ll start with the basic course."

He added, “I will assess the people one by one as we will not admit students who wish to attend the course only for curiosity. We want candidates to meet our standards. Only after this screening process will the young aspirants be invited to Maranello. The cost has not been decided yet."

Baldisserri revealed that the best race results of those entered in the program came from the French driver, Brandon Maisano, who won the first ever Formula ACI-CSAI Abarth championship title.

He also announced that the FDA had ended its collaboration with Daniel Zampieri and Mirko Bortolotti, while it had signed an agreement with Sergio Perez who will drive for Sauber in the 2011 Formula 1 world championship.