So you want to be a Ferrari test driver, eh? The good news, says the man who would be making this irresistible job offer, is that you have longer than you perhaps thought: Raffaele de Simone’s recruiting cut-off is 40 years old.
But note that it could then take you a decade to join the programme for something serious like the 296 Speciale. Ferrari’s chief test driver since 2014, who I was lucky enough to have dinner with on the Speciale launch, started earlier than most. He was just 19 and still an engineering student when he joined Dario Benuzzi’s team. His first project? The Enzo. Hard to believe.
Events were put in motion during a race weekend at Misano. It was the first semi-public outing for an Enzo prototype, with Benuzzi at the wheel and Piero Ferrari riding shotgun. Benuzzi, if you need reminding, had signed off the dynamics of every Ferrari since the Dino and is still Maranello’s most celebrated test driver (although, given the recent run of stellar models, de Simone is certain to inherit that status).
This was back in 2001. De Simone was sitting on the grid, transfixed by this wild pre-Enzo through his visor when he should have been zoning in for a race start. It was a powerful moment that left “a permanent image”,
Later that day, de Simone managed to take down Benuzzi’s phone number while both their cars were stuck in traffic leaving the circuit. Talk about sliding doors. Then came an interview and the offer of a full-time salary, although Ferrari would also allow him time to finish his degree. All he needed to do was give up on a career in top-tier GT racing. Not an easy decision, but the opportunity at Ferrari was too sweet.
I ask about the master Benuzzi’s driving style: “Careful. He had probably scared himself many times driving the Daytona or cars like this that were not braking well. Plenty of margin before the limit. He was not a fast driver, but you don’t need to force the pace to understand the car.”
De Simone doesn’t so much as imply it, but it’s clear Benuzzi and Amedeo Felisa saw something rare in his blend of engineering mind, racer’s synapses and the crucial love of driving. He dispassionately says he is just one part of a testing ecosystem that is now 400 people strong: “I represent the role of head of test drivers. If it were not me, it would be another, but with the same scheme of applying the company’s logics.”