Robert Shwartzman ‘totally focused’ on F1 as Ferrari FP1 outings loom

What is going wrong at Ferrari?

Hamilton still has ‘plenty of fuel in the tank’ for F1 future

A frosty reception for Andretti Global

What’s next for Sebastian Vettel?

Most toxic title fight since Senna v Prost?

Verstappen laughing all the way to a 2nd title

Daniel Ricciardo saga shows brutal nature of F1

Norris continues to shine for McLaren

Robert Shwartzman says he remains “totally focused” on Formula 1 as he prepares for his FP1 debut with Ferrari.

The 22-year-old Israel-born driver is not racing this season having completed two full campaigns in the Formula 2 Championship, finishing fourth and second respectively with the Prema team.

Instead, he is backing up Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, serving as a test and simulator driver while his fellow Ferrari Academy member Mick Schumacher is the official reserve for race weekends, ready to step up from the Haas team if needed.

Shwartzman, however, will join that trio at two of the last nine grand prix weekends of 2022 when he takes part in a pair of FP1 sessions to fulfil each team’s mandatory requirement to blood a rookie.

It will not be his first time in contemporary F1 machinery on track, however, for Shwartzman took part in the end-of-season test in Abu Dhabi last year for both Ferrari and Haas.

At this stage, however, it is difficult to see where the Tel Aviv-born driver will actually find himself a race seat in the near future – even though he is not yet ready to turn his attention to other categories of motorsport.

“I’ll do the best I can to get a chance,” Shwartzman told Motorsport.com. “Obviously I hope the work I’m doing this season will be of help to me.

“Honestly, I don’t have a real plan B, the kind that if I don’t go to Formula 1 there will already be an