Robert Shwartzman says his future racing career prospects alongside Formula 1 reserve duties for Ferrari are wide open after testing multiple categories including IndyCar in 2023.
The Russian-Israeli driver hasn’t had a full-time race drive since he last raced single-seaters in 2021, taking part in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup this year. However, alongside those five rounds, he also tested an IndyCar for Chip Ganassi Racing in January, took part in the Formula E rookie test in Berlin in April and then drove Ferrari’s 499P Hypercar in Bahrain’s rookie test at the end of the year.
“Anything could happen — at the moment, it’s nothing defined as 100%,” Shwartzman told RACER of where that leaves him for 2024. “I just know that I’m staying with Ferrari for next year doing reserve [duties] and FP1s. Then hopefully we will have more testing with a Formula 1 car — I really hope so. They’re going to push further, and we’re going to get some more drive time. And, yeah, the endurance program is not fully defined, but I really hope that I’m gonna be racing with with Ferrari Hypercar.”
Ferrari has a third Hypercar entry for next season’s World Endurance Championship, with only Robert Kubica confirmed as one of the AF Corse drivers, but Shwartzman appears well-placed to join him.
“[That would be] super. I always dreamt of driving in Formula 1, and at the same time, I dreamt of doing the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Because you know, when you watch the movies, and, and yes, as kids, we were mostly watching Formula 1, but everybody knew what the 24 Hours of Le Mans is. So if you participate and hopefully you win, it’s something very, very special. Not many F1 drivers have it, so it’s a very big thing. I’m really looking forward to that.”
Shwartzman was satisfied with both his pace and usefulness to the team during his time with the Ferrari SF-23 during the Abu Dhabi post-season test. Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Wherever his future takes him next year, Shwartzman is confident he has shown he can be competitive in a number of different series given his performances in the tests he has carried out over the past 12 months, having also driven Ferrari’s F1 car in the young driver test in Abu Dhabi.
“For sure I gained quite a lot, because I think I tried all of the most-known series. So I’m happy that in most of them, I went really fast and I straight away got how to drive the car. So I’m happy with myself in that sense that I learn quick. And yeah, most of the cars were really nice to drive. So I feel confident that in any category that I’m going to be racing in I’m going to be competitive and strong and bringing results. So I’m very happy with that.
“IndyCar went really well; the team was really good, with Ganassi. Then I did the [Formula E] rookie test in Berlin with DS Penske and went really well as well there — I was fastest most of the day — and also with the Hypercar we did the fastest lap time there in Bahrain. So I think overall I got a very good feel with all of these cars.
“And in F1 also, I was happy that generally I wasn’t doing any mistakes, because I was focusing more on that side of things. Because I knew that the team is searching not just for performance, they just want the consistency to get the information to learn something. So I’m happy that from that side, everything was spot on. And we got everything we wanted.”
