Robert Schwartzman is a professional racing driver who currently serves as a development driver for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One team
Robert Shwartzman will drive for Ferrari in FP1 at the US Grand Prix next month at the Circuit of the Americas. The Scuderia, like every other team this year, is obliged to offer up two FP1 sessions for a rookie driver to take part in and get a feel for driving a Formula 1 car during a Grand Prix weekend. Here’s everything you need to know about this rookie driver.
Robert Shwartzman last competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship for 2020 and 2021 where he finished 4th and 2nd respectively. He is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy and the 2018 Toyota Racing Series and the 2019 FIA Formula 3 champion. In Formula 1, Shwartzman was due to appear in the first practice session of the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, driving for Haas. However, he did not appear on the entry list. He took part in the 2021 post-season young driver test with Haas and Ferrari. Shwartzman is a test driver for Ferrari in 2022, he is due to compete as Israeli, after the FIA banned drivers from competing under the Russian flag following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Following the merger of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship and GP3 Series into the new FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2019, Prema announced Shwartzman as one of its drivers for the inaugural season. Shwartzman qualified on pole for the first Barcelona race and initially finished the race in second before being promoted to race winner following a time penalty to Christian Lundgaard. In the following day’s race, he finished fourth.
Shwartzman joined Prema Racing for the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, partnering Mick Schumacher. The season was planned to begin in March, but was postponed until July due to COVID-19 pandemic. On 18 April 2020, Shwartzman’s father died of COVID-19 aged 52. On his rookie season of F2, Shwartzman expected his season as “toughest season of my life” mainly due to his father’s death.
Shwartzman qualified eighth in the opening race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. He made a good start, moving up to fifth and later taking advantage of a mechanical issue for Guanyu Zhou and a mistake from Schumacher. This led him to take a podium finish on his Formula 2 debut, taking 3rd place in the feature race.
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