Photo: WSK Promotion
Sons of former Formula 1 racers took part in the first day of post-season testing for Italian Formula 4 at Vallelunga on Monday.
Charlie Wurz, son of two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Alex, was the second fastest of the day with US Racing and was 0.883 seconds off the pace set by Bhaitech’s recent series debutant Tikhon Kharitonov.
Wurz, who recently had his 15th birthday, has already been on the single-seater radar this year having been involved in a ACI Sport and Tony Kart-organised training camp and a Ferrari Driver Academy-organised assessment at Maranello that could earn him Ferrari Formula 1 junior status next year.
This season was his first in senior karting, and he finished ninth in WSK’s Euro Series and Open Cup, as well as 38th in the CIK-FIA European championship.
Enzo Trulli, son of 2004 Monaco Grand Prix victor Jarno, was also in his first season of senior karting competition this year with Dino Chiesa’s Kart Republic. Trulli came 15th in the European championship and 13th in the WSK Super Master Series.
In the Vallelunga test he’s driving for Regium Motorsport, a team actually yet to make its debut in Italian F4, and was fourth fastest over Monday’s sessions.
Between himself and Wurz was BVM Technorace’s Leonardo Bizzotto, a shifter karter who did private testing in an F4 car at the start of 2020.
Slowest of the five drivers who were present was Wurz’s karting team-mate Toni Kayla Naude, who was driving for Iron Lynx. The Swiss made the longlist for the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission’s new FDA-affiliated Girls on Track Rising Stars programme earlier this year.
On track at the same time as the depleted F4 field was the runners in Formula Regional European Championship’s first post-season test, those being just the two cars from DR Formula by RP Motorsport, and Formula 2 team Trident.
The Italian outfit was running two of its old GP3 machines for French F4 graduate Rafael Villagomez and Formula Renault Eurocup racer Laszlo Toth.
Test results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tikhon Kharitonov | Bhaitech | 1m35.878s | 82 | |
| 2 | Charlie Wurz | US Racing | 1m36.761s | +0.883s | 92 |
| 3 | Leonardo Bizzotto | BVM Technorace | 1m37.095s | +1.217s | 88 |
| 4 | Enzo Trulli | Regium Motorsport | 1m37.654s | +1.776s | 106 |
| 5 | Toni Kayla Naude | Iron Lynx | 1m41.090s | +5.212s | 66 |