F1 | Alesi, Armstrong and Shwartzman open Ferrari's 2021 season

Scuderia Ferrari's five days of testing scheduled until Friday have begun with seven drivers on the Fiorano track. To welcome the team and three talents from the Ferrari Driver Academy involved today, a temperature close to zero degrees centigrade and a few snowflakes that fell, lightly, on the Prancing Horse's home circuit. The first to get into the car was Giuliano Alesi - just over 30 years after his father Jean carried out his first test with the Scuderia aboard an F1-90 - who a minute after 10am left the box behind the wheel of the 71 SF2018H.

History repeats itself. The twenty-two-year-old Frenchman wore the number 28 on the car's livery, the first used by his father in his adventure with Ferrari in the 1991 season. Giuliano covered the initial kilometers with caution due to the damp road surface and the low temperatures, but already in the second run slick tires were fitted on the single-seater and the Frenchman began to lap faster and faster. Following him from the garage was an excited Jean who never took his eyes off his son's Ferrari. Giuliano thus concluded his chapter in the FDA in an unforgettable way, since in the near future he will be involved in an important program in Asia.

Marcus's first. Shortly after 11am the SF71H was adapted to the measurements of the second FDA pilot involved in the test, Marcus Armstrong. Even for him, who competed in Formula 2 last year, obtaining two podiums and in 2021 will be the representative of the DAMS team in the same championship, it was his debut at the wheel of a Formula 1 car. Marcus thus became the second New Zealander to drive a Ferrari in the top category after Chris Amon who competed for the Scuderia from 1967 to 1969 in Formula 1 and until 1970 in endurance competitions in which, together with Lorenzo Bandini, in 1967 he led the Maranello company to success in the 24 Hours of Daytona and in the 1000 km of Monza. Armstrong's car had the number 9 because it is the one preferred by Marcus, who inherited it from his first driver coach in New Zealand when he approached karting for the first time.

Robert's return. Finally, it was Robert Shwartzman who lapped until the sun went down on the three-year-old single-seater. The Russian driver – who last year won more races than anyone else in Formula 2 (four), finishing fourth in his debut season – was not making his debut with the SF71H since he had already driven it during the related test to the #RoadToF1 program which on 30 September last year featured Mick Schumacher and Callum Ilott as protagonists, who will return to the cockpit later this week (the German on Thursday and Friday, the Briton on Friday only). With Robert the Scuderia carried out a more extensive programme, taking advantage of his greater experience, given that to those already completed in Fiorano he also added the 129 passes completed on the Yas Marina circuit in the Young Driver Test last 15 December in Abu Dhabi. The Russian drove with the number 35 on the nose of the car, a number that is particularly dear to him because it was suggested to him by karting veteran Walter Masini when he was only seven years old, as well as the one with which he won his first world championship in that discipline.

General test. The first day of testing at Fiorano also gave the technicians and mechanics the opportunity to regain confidence with the technical and safety procedures implemented to limit the spread of Covid-19. Tomorrow the work on the track continues: the Scuderia's regular driver, Charles Leclerc, will be driving the SF71H. Wednesday will instead be the moment of Carlos Sainz's debut in a Ferrari.