Maranello, 14 May

The Ferrari Museum today hosted a presentation entitled “Dai gas alla sicurezza – Ferrari Driver Academy” a road safety campaign promoted by the Maranello Academy in collaboration with Polstrada, aimed at high school students. The initiative is run in five stages under the patronage of Miur-National Agency for Scholastic Autonomy and the Ministry of Tourism. It begins in Modena on Wednesday 16 May, when students from the Barozzi Technical and Commercial Institute will meet two Ferrari Driver Academy youngsters, Brandon Maisano and Raffaele Marciello, who will talk about their experiences at the wheel, how to prepare physically for a race and how to deal with emergencies and many other topics linked to the Highway Code

On the same day, their Canadian colleague, Lance Stroll will take part in “Kart in piazza 2012” an initiative run by the Automobile Clubs in conjunction with the CSAI and Aci Sport, which will give many young children the chance to learn the basics of driving, at the wheel of karts specifically suited to the purpose outside the Ferrari Museum. On Thursday 17 May, the “Ferrari Park” event will take place in the Piazza Grande with a display of cars used in training the Academy drivers, along with Polstrada trucks, driving simulators and an information point for the public.

After the Modena stage, the event will move on to Padua (18 May,) Rimini (5-7 July,) Monza in October and Rome in November. Revealing details of the initiative to the media were Andrea Babbi, Managing Director of APT Servizi, Elisabetta Mancini, from the Interior Ministry, in charge of the road safety campaign and communication of Polstrada and Mario Galli, Modena’s Councillor for Tourism, the Head of the Ferrari Driver Academy Luca Baldisserri and Massimo Rivola, Sporting Director of Scuderia Ferrari. “The FDA is a programme aimed at bringing on young talent with the aim of taking them all the way from karts to Formula 1,” explained Baldisserri. “It is precisely because we work on a daily basis with youngsters that we have developed an understanding of what the youngsters want to achieve and we have decided to use our students to tackle something as important as road safety with people their own age. Along with Polstrada, we have set up this project trying to find parallels between a race driver preparing to drive quickly on track and a youngster who is preparing to drive a normal road car, so that they can immediately go in the right direction in terms of finding the most suitable behaviour to adopt when at the wheel.” Baldisserri also mentioned that in the decade from 2011 to 2020, the UN has decided to increase awareness in various countries of road safety projectys. “Apart from the backing of the UN itself, we have that important national bodies such as the Miur and the Tourism Ministry, as well as various local bodies in Modena. As part of this project we have also planned a session for various artists to produce murals with themes linked to road safety. Their works will be on show in the Maranello museum and then auctioned, with proceeds going to various organisations that help victims of road safety.” At the end of the meeting, Massimo Rivola stressed the importance of the work undertaken by Ferrari in this field. “The youth of today need role models, as was the case for us in the past and as it will always be and this is a good responsibility for Ferrari and its youngsters to set an example. Road deaths statistics reveal that the main cause is speed and speed is a subject in which we are experts and we want to teach people that there is a place where one can express one’s talent and it is definitely not on public roads that we use every day. Ferrari is pleased to take on this role and this responsibility which I believe can have a chain reaction on youngsters addressed here and, first off with the drivers from our Academy.”