Reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Victor Martins has completed his first Formula 1 test today with Alpine at Monza.
The 21-year-old Frenchman drove Alpine’s A521 car, which was raced by the team in F1 in 2021, and he took to Twitter afterwards to share his delight about the experience.
“I just drove a Formula 1 car 😍. Today I realised one of my dreams, you can’t imagine how happy I am right now, I enjoyed every second of it!” he wrote. “A huge thanks to Alpine F1 Team and everyone involved for giving me the opportunity!”
The Alpine junior is racing in Formula 2 this year and is currently 15th in the standings with a pole position and two sprint race podiums.
He will hand over the A521 tomorrow to fellow F2 racer Jack Doohan, who is also racing in F2 and is 11th in the championship with one podium from the first eight races. The next F2 round takes place at Imola on May 19-21.
Half of this year’s F2 grid are F1 juniors, and only a handful of them are currently sheduled to get test outings in F1 cars. However several are in contention to make appearances on grand prix weekends in F1 practice sessions as teams are mandated to give up two sessions per season to ‘young drivers’ who are lacking in F1 race experience.
A tricky start to Nyck de Vries’ rookie F1 season with AlphaTauri has led to speculation that some of Red Bull’s juniors may be given practice outings as the team considers its 2024 line-up.