Motorsport: High-flying Marciello coming to NZ

One of the five drivers being groomed for a future in Formula 1 by the Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) will compete in the International Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand during January and February next year.

Raffaele Marciello, an Italian teenager chosen by Ferrari as a potential star of the future, is a high-profile entry for New Zealand's International racing series which, for the first time in its history, features five back-to-back racing weekends.

Marciello is the first in an exciting line-up of International drivers to be announced in the build up to the first round at the Teretonga circuit in Invercargill on January 14-15.

"The concentrated format for the series has proved popular with overseas teams and drivers. Confirming the driver line up takes a lot of work throughout the year so to get to this point with our first announcement is exciting and rewarding," racing series category manager Barrie Thomlinson said.

"I am extremely proud to say the international entry in 2012 is shaping up to be our best and the series is starting to resemble the glory days of the Tasman series in the 1960`s when our own Chris Amon was part of Ferrari's Formula 1 driver line up."

"We have been fortunate in the past two years to have received invitations from the FDA for our young Kiwi drivers Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy to complete individual tests in Italy and through this association both drivers have been able to demonstrate their professionalism and the competitiveness that has been developed in TRS."

Evans tested the FDA Tatuus Formula Abarth car at Italy's Misano circuit in 2010 while just two months ago Cassidy tested and then raced under the watchful eye of the FDA engineers at the Ferrari owned Mugello circuit in Italy.

"The FDA programme was launched in 2010 and is managed by Luca Baldisserri who was Michael Schumacher's race engineer in Formula 1 and became chief engineer on the Ferrari F1 project. We expect that either Luca or one of the academy's engineers will join Raffaele in New Zealand at some point during the series."

The five drivers currently being nurtured by the FDA are Mexican Sergio Perez who is already racing in F1 with the Sauber/Ferrari team, Frenchman Jules Bianchi who competes in GP2 and is one of Ferrari F1 reserve drivers; and three young talents that have been selected from karting - Marciello, Brandon Maisano from France and Lance Stroll from Canada.

Raffaele was born in Zurich on the Swiss border region of Italy but now lives in the Ferrari factory town of Romagna, not far from the famous marquee's headquarters at Maranello, Raffaele, who will turn 17 on December 17th, is nicknamed `Lello' and has an impressive racing pedigree.

Ferrari talent-spotted him in European karting and prepared him for his single seater debut in Formula Abarth in 2010.

He took two wins and five podium finishes in his debut single seater season and finished third overall in the new series.

This year, Raffaele competed with the Prema Powerteam, driving a Dallara in the Italian Formula 3 Championship where he again claimed two outright wins and again finished third in the championship.

For the next year's TRS season Raffaele will join an impressive lineup of young drivers who will drive for the M2 Competition team run by ex A1GP Team New Zealand engineers Mark Pilcher and Jonathan Moury.

2012 International Toyota Racing Series

Round 1: January 12-15 Teretonga Park, Invercargill Spirit of a Nation Cup

Round 2: January 19-22 Timaru Raceway, Timaru; Timaru Herald Trophy

Round 3: January 26-29 Taupo Motorsport Park; Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy

Round 4: February 2-5 Hampton Downs, Auckland; New Zealand Motor Cup

Round 5: February 9-12 Manfeild, Feilding; New Zealand Grand Prix; (Dan Higgins Trophy and Dorothy Smith Memorial Cup)