Exclusive Day 4 Photos: Sainz Jr. continues testing at Fiorano

At 9.30 Thursday morning the shutters rolled up on the pit garage at the Fiorano track and a minute later Carlos Sainz Jr. was out for his 2nd day at the wheel of a Ferrari Formula 1 car. Naturally enough, the 26 year-old from Madrid ran his usual F1 number 55 on the SF71H, the 2018 car, as he completed more than a hundred laps on his maiden outing with the Scuderia Wednesday. Carlos worked with the engineers he had already met in several meetings held over the past weeks and also got to know the mechanics and the car procedures, many of which will also be relevant to this year’s SF21, which he and Charles Leclerc will drive for the first time at the pre-season test in Bahrain during the second week in March.

VIP spectators. Watching Carlos’ first run from the flyover on the public road to Maranello were a fair few spectators and journalists and in the afternoon, there was even a banner with the words “Vamos Carlos!”. Inside the track, also present were the driver’s father Carlos Sainz Senior, the famous world champion rally driver, team-mate Charles Leclerc, as well as the Head of Ferrari Driver Academy, Marco Matassa who had worked closely with the Spaniard over a three-year period from 2015 to 2017 when they were both at Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Two drivers today. In the morning, Carlos Sainz Jr will again be at the wheel of the SF71H while the Ferrari Driver Academy’s Mick Schumacher will take over in the afternoon. The German who will be racing for the Haas F1 Team this year will also drive on Friday morning, after which the Scuderia’s test driver and also a member of the FDA, Callum Ilott, will round off the five-day test.