theceomagazine.com | 181“The second hurdle is a minimum
aptitude to drive sporting cars, and for that
we organise a test in Fiorano (the testing
track attached to the Ferrari factory) with
our drivers.
“Safety is extremely important, which
is why we have driving tutors, like former
F1 test driver Marc Gené, and he will tell you
the average quality of the drivers we get is
very good.
“The hardest thing is putting it in first
gear, and getting it out of the pits.”
I find it very hard to believe that this is the
most difficult thing about driving an F1 car,
although Coletta also admits that getting
your head around using an F1 car’s button-
riddled steering wheel is tricky. “It takes
about half a day of training to work that out.”
While Ferrari will fly your own, personal
F1 car to any suitable racetrack in the world,
it also holds a series of events each year
where its “70 or so” Corse Clienti members
can get out and scare each other on proper
racing circuits.
“It’s not a race; it’s for fun, very serious
fun,” Coletta says. “You enjoy the car and
you find your own pace. It’s not a
competition, it’s about experiencing this
incredible car you own.”
On average, there are three or four spins
at each event where a customer gets too
keen on the throttle and spins off the track,
and “maybe one or two crashes” each year.
Fortunately, if you bend your priceless
Ferrari, the company can fix it for you – at a
no doubt hefty price – because it has spare
parts for every single car, as well as the
original moulds and tools.
“Of course, if you don’t want your car
anymore we will buy it back and sell it to
someone else, because we want these cars
to be used. They were made to be driven,”
Coletta smiles.The cars themselves demand that anyone
brave enough to take them on be in
reasonable physical shape because their
cockpits are crushingly small. Standing next
to one it’s easy to see why driving a modern
F1 car has been compared with lying in
a bath and using the taps as your pedals.
It’s a punishing position to put yourself in.
“Honestly, it’s impossible that any driver
could take a car like this onto a track and
do an event without a lot of previous
experience,” Coletta adds. “It’s simply
impossible, people would not physically
be capable.
“The first hurdle is the customer must fit
in the car.
There really is nothing else like this in the
world, because Formula 1’s most important
and glamorous team allows people
not only to buy its hugely fast former
race cars, but also to race them.
PUNISHING
POSITION
Ferrari ownership | INDULGE