US teenager Santino Ferrucci will continue in his capacity as Haas F1 Team development driver in 2017, team principal Guenther Steiner says.
The youngster was signed ahead of the American outfit’s maiden Formula One campaign and tested for Haas during the two-day post-British Grand Prix session held at Silverstone in early July.
Ferrucci dovetailed his F1 commitment with a maiden GP3 Series campaign for DAMS, finishing 12th in the Drivers’ standings with one podium at Spa-Francorchamps.
“[Santino] will stay as the development driver,” Steiner was quoted as saying by Autosport. “It's a long-term project, we don't exactly what we're going to do next year with him because as you know testing is still up in the air.
“We know the tests we are doing but we still need to decide when we use the rookie days and who we put in it.
“We also need to decide if we are going to do some FP1s with him or not. Over the winter, we're going to sit down with him and see what we're doing.”
Steiner adds that Ferrucci is the most promising US prospect across the junior categories but needs to show better consistency. The Connecticut-born racer is likely to return for a second GP3 season next year.
Haas also had Ferrari junior and eventual GP3 champion Charles Leclerc on its 2016 roster and ran the Monegasque in four FP1 sessions.
2016 team-by-team review: Part two
2016 team-by-team review: Part one
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