Home Features Fuoco joins Ferrari Driver Academy, Maisano out

Fuoco joins Ferrari Driver Academy, Maisano out

by Peter Allen

Photo: WSK/Muro Leccese

Italian karter joins Scuderia’s young driver development programme after impressing in tests…

Ferrari have hired 16-year-old Italian Antonio Fuoco to their Driver Academy, while letting Brandon Maisano go after he failed to win the Italian Formula 3 Championship.

Fuoco finished second in the Italian KF3 championship in 2010, while at the end of 2011 he won the ‘Supercorso’ – a competition laid on by the Italian federation the CSAI in association with the FDA, which included tests in a Formula Abarth. In 2012 he finished third in the WSK Euro Series in the KF2 category, as well as impressing the FDA in more Formula Abarth tests.

Maisano won the Formula Abarth title in 2010 in his time with Ferrari, but failed to win the Italian F3 title at the second attempt in 2012, finishing behind Riccardo Agostini and teammate Eddie Cheever.

Fuoco joins Jules Bianchi, Raffaele Marciello and Canadian karter Lance Stroll in the setup. Sergio Perez left the programme ahead of his switch to McLaren.