The Franciacorta Circuit in Northern Italy has seen Chevrolet, Jaguar and Mercedes out testing ahead of the season opener at Monza over the 31 March/1 April.
At the wheel of the Mercedes C63 AMG racer was seventeen year old Andrea Boffo, the 2011 Challenge F.Renault 2.0 Italia Champion. Joining Boffo at the test was Milan based Gian Maria Gabbiani, Alessandro Kouzkin and Nicola Narini’s younger brother, Andrea.
Gabbiani entered the non-Championship event held in Bologna last December, at the Motor Show and he said about the Franciacorta test: “The car is great to drive, because it highlights the basic skills of a driver, and there’s plenty of wheelspin which is actually pretty fun! In addition to that, the SUPERSTARS SERIES has now become the benchmark championship in Europe especially due to its clever promotion and huge media coverage. It’s something we really need, especially in tough times like these…”
Also present was Domenico Ferlito at the wheel of the Jaguar XF, and Ferlito was able to register a number of laps behind the wheel of the car, which has returned to its original green colour. Monza saw the XF finish on the podium last year, as the Ferlito Motors team took the car to second place in the second race.
Swiss team Solaris Motorsport were also in attendance with their Chevrolet Lumina. Having had a brief shakedown test at Varano, the team ran Francisco Sini, and Sini was pleased with the progress of the car.
“Today’s program has been different from the one carried-on at Varano 10 days ago,” explained Sini. “This time we worked on several set-up solutions and I’m really impressed with how the car behaved. The great laptimes we scored are an additional motivation to keep on working. We want to be among the frontrunners at Monza.”
Solaris Motorsport Team Manager Cristian Grasso is hoping to field a second car at the collective test at Monza, ahead of the opening round of the 2012 season in a month’s time, 31 March/1 April.