Raffaele Marciello named Sauber reserve

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Whilst Sauber has added two new drivers to it's line up for next year, today they announced a new reserve driver also in Ferrari academy, prospect Raffaele Marciello. The Italian youngster has an impressive junior category CV and will dovetail Sauber reserve duties with a second season in GP2.

Marciello is seen as the latest Ferrari prospect of the future and impressed last year on his way to the European F3 title, before stepping up to GP2 this year with Racing Engineering. Whilst he struggled he still showed tremendous speed and will be aiming to improve on his 8th place finish this year when he returns with Racing Engineering next year.

Marciello himself commented on the announcement by saying "I am really pleased to become a member of the Sauber F1 team, which has a long tradition of building up excellent drivers, I really think that this is the best choice for my future career. I am also happy to compete for one more season in the GP2 Series, which, together with my new F1 role, will give me a very busy 2015 season."

Alongside this Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn added her thoughts on the announcement "He proved his great talent in junior formulas, and his season in the European Formula 3 Championship with 13 wins and the title victory was particularly impressive, We will give Raffaele the opportunity to become familiar with Formula 1, which also includes him taking part in some free practice sessions on Fridays."

This seems to be a good announcement for everyone concerned as firstly for Marciello he gets the opportunity to learn and impress in F1 with selected Friday Free Practice outings, whilst for Ferrari it gives them a chance to assess their latest prospect in the F1 environment. Finally for Sauber they get to look at a very fast young driver for the future thanks to their close relationship with the Ferrari, which could see him placed with the Sauber team in F1 if he impresses next year.

What are your thoughts on this announcement? Please feel free to comment below.
 
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I'm absolutely thrilled.

First of all, Monisha Kaltenborn should have put to rest all the babble about her being a bad F1 principal. She just flipped Adrian Sutil and his diminished ceiling for Brazil's next F1 hopeful Felipe Nasr, and now exchanged Giedo van der Garde, who was doing little more than giving the team McGregor decals last year, for Ferrari's top prospect Raffaele Marciello - just in case anyone had any doubts about whether or not the team still had an eye for great talent.

This gives Marciello another year to refine himself in GP2. Those who saw him last year know he's blindingly quick and fun to watch - he was the only GP2 driver to qualify in the top 10 for all 11 feature races last year, but bad luck and a few rookie mistakes cost him more victories than just the titanic triumph he had over Vandoorne at Spa. Between Nasr, Ericsson, and Marciello, the team now has not only three GP2 drivers, but three former Formula 3 champions as well.

It's been an uphill battle without James Key and the Ferrari power units are, to be fair, quite terrible - but I feel as if Sauber deserves a turn around, immediately back into the points and contending in the midfield again.
 
@David O'Reilly - To be fair, the last few years have created an unfair stigma about GP2 with a lack of standout talent to come along. Stoffel Vandoorne was the most impressive rookie driver to come along since Nico Hulkenberg - more impressive when considering Pirelli's GP2 tyre compounds have stymied a lot of novice drivers before. The only rookie who could consistently match his pace week in and week out was Marciello.

I really feel that by 2016, both of them should have competitive F1 drives. Marciello with a team such as Haas or Sauber, and Vandoorne just needs to bypass the logjam within the McLaren organization.
 
So basically Ferrari have offered a bit of financial help to the struggling Sauber in return for nurturing one of their academy drivers.
Similar to Bianchi and Marussia, but perhaps not as valuable.
 
I know rob Wilson driving coach has been impressed by marcielllo and i recall him doing well in formula 3 . I doubt he will emerge as a legend but looks a very good driver who adapts given time . Wikipedia and viewing his championship position year on year is easy enough to check for evidence .
 
Personally I think Mitch Evans should be given a go somewhere. Maybe I'm a bit biased being a kiwi but it's been a long time since New Zealand has had an F1 driver. Being a champion in gp3 and a proven winner and consistent racer in gp2 I think is more than enough to be picked up by at least a smaller F1 team
 
@Jeremy Talbot Couldn't agree more. Evans is now at risk of being one of "those" four-year GP2 drivers at the very least and a forgotten talent at the very worst - but he's turning 21 just next year, he has Mark Webber as a mentor - some drivers stick around in GP2 because they have enough of a budget to sit there but not go to F1. Others really want to be in F1 but are stuck in GP2 due to backing issues and a lack of available seats. Evans is a prime case of the latter.
 
Totally agree. I just hope he actually has a drive next year as I'm not sure he's got anything confirmed. If not then maybe he might join Mark Webber and Brendan Hartley in WEC?
 
LOL

Anyone that thinks Rafa will get a fair chance at Sauber should wake up out of that dream right away. Sauber is short on money those who pay the most for the seats are in simple as that. For him it all depends on his backing but im afraid he is going to take the same path as Giedo,... paying big time for a few decals on that car and praying you can do a few Friday sessions and then at the end of the season getting ditched or that agreements made being ignored.

Some people know half the story what happened with Giedo, those McGregor decals where payed quite heavily and he had a contract to race for next year. But instead got ditched because someone else was able to bring in a bigger bag of money.:p

I hope Rafa has good backing otherwise he has a big problem.
 
The big difference being that Marciello is backed by Ferrari and the best Italian F1 prospect to come along since Fisichella and Trulli and Van der Garde is pushing 30 and all his upper-level ceiling disappeared five years ago while he was moving to GP2.
 

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