Expectant drivers got their first taste of the brand new Formula S2000 single-seater yesterday, as International Formula Master (IFM) burst onto the motorsport scene at Monza.
Day one of the official IFM shakedown left all the drivers suitably impressed after the famously high-speed twists and turns of the historic Italian circuit allowed the powerful two-litre machine to show its full potential.
Speaking before he guest-drives the Formula S2000 tomorrow, Bruno Senna said the car looked good from the outside. “Drivers were braking at 100m into the first chicane,” said the GP2 driver. “F1 brakes at the same point, so it’s a good reference.
“It shows the car is behaving well coming from high speed to low speed. Looking from the outside it was nice on the curbs, riding them smoothly, and doesn’t understeer or oversteer too much.”
An assortment of drivers featured at the top of the timesheets in both morning and afternoon sessions. Italy’s Massimo Torre claimed the fastest time this morning driving for Scuderia Fama. He was closely followed by the son of former F1 driver, Johnny ‘Alberto’ Cecotto, Ombra Racing’s Johnny Cecotto Jr.
Times improved by up to a second in this afternoon’s session as track temperatures increased and IFM’s fleet of 33 young drivers laid more rubber on the tarmac. Scuderia Fama’s Luca Persiani from Italy was fastest overall with a time of 1:46.001.
Luca Persiani, Italy, Scuderia Fama
“We tried something different with the clutch for our last run which allowed the car to accelerate better. Our times really improved after that, it felt perfect.”
Johnny Cecotto Jr, Germany, Team Ombra
“I was counting down the days to come here and test the car; yesterday I couldn’t wait for it to be today. Now I am not disappointed. It felt better than I thought and definitely lives up to the hype.
“This is a very nice car to drive. It’s very quick in the quick corners and it’s very powerful for being a two-litre car and it brakes hard. It’s very agile. The most interesting thing is that it has a lot of aerodynamic charge so it doesn’t slow down a lot at high speed like other cars do.
“Today we were just running in the pads and brakes and checking that everything works. At the start I was quickest but then, in the last one-and-a-half hours, we didn’t drive because I had a spin and got a lot of gravel in the car.
“There are some drivers that have raced in some interesting categories and had some good results, like Goetz and D’Ambrosio; they are definitely two of my strongest competitors.”
Massimo Torre, Italy, Scuderia Fama
“The car is very quick, it is great at direction changes and can support very high speeds which is so important at Monza. It was my first time using gear shifts so that was a crucial part of today for me but overall I’m pretty excited about the whole thing. I cannot wait to see how the season pans out.”
Kasper Andersen, Denmark, J.D. Motorsport
“The aerodynamics and the grip are brilliant with this car. It’s a lot lighter than I expected but it is still easy to drive even with the speeds that we were doing today. I think the field is going to be extremely competitive, it looks very promising for this season!”
