2018 PRE-SEASON TESTING: FINAL PREPARATIONS

And now I'm beginning to talk about the third and final day of pre-season testing. In about two weeks the "real" F2 season will be on. Are you ready and excited, folks?

The best driver in the morning was the German Maximilian Günther, who I met last year in Monza. And guess who scored the second time, more specificately 1:43.058, and completed 39 laps? None other than my knight Louis! I'm so proud of him! GO GO GO LOUIS! ALLEZ LOUIS! What about the other drivers I support? Hmmm... Louis' squire, Antonio Fuoco, ended in 10th position, and his friends Jack and Ralph ended respectively 4th and 14th.

And finally here we are in the last session. It's an hot afternoon in Sakhir. The Asian power embodied by Nirei Fukuzumi triumphed. My cutie pie was quite unlucky, as he arrived 19th with a time of 1:49.013; however, he completed 41 laps.

What can I say about these days of testing? Apart from this afternoon's débâcle, I'm happy for the beautiful performances shown by the Swiss ace.

2018 PRE-SEASON TESTING: KEEP HOLDIN' ON, JUST STAY STRONG

This is the second day of testing in Sakhir. In the morning, the Indian driver of Trident Arjun Maini, who looks like Raj from "The Big Bang Theory", topped the timesheets. At the second and third place there were two of my favourite drivers, Jack Aitken and Nyck De Vries. The main character of this blog, the mythical Louis, was the third driver to get on track and completed 17 laps with a time of 1:43.145, ending 5th; his teammate Antonio Fuoco ended 11st. The other Swiss Ralph Boschung didn't have so much luck, ending in the last position.

In the afternoon the quickest driver was Santino Ferrucci, the Italo-American driver of Trident, who is also Haas' development driver. Antonio and Louis were the first drivers to make their appearance on track, and ended respectively in 8th and 4th position. Louis completed 39 laps and scored a time of 1:46.737.

That's all for today... stay tuned for the third and last day!

2018 PRE-SEASON TESTING: WHO STARTS WELL IS AT THE HALF OF THE JOB

It's not a mystery that Sakhir International Circuit is one of Louis' favourites. Under a shining sun, with 27º C, in the morning the young Genevan prince completed 17 laps, setting a time of 1:44.549. The best driver in the whole session was my fellow Italian Luca Ghiotto, who races with Campos. Antonio Fuoco, Louis' teammate, beat our hero arriving 2nd. The other Swiss of the field, Ralph Boschung, ended the session only 12nd. Roy Nissany, one of Louis' colleagues at the times of Formula V8 3.5, obtained the 10th time. Finally, Jack Aitken, one of Louis' closest friends, was the last of the group.

And in the afternoon Louis seemed to be the fastest; his time was almost untouchable, but Nyck De Vries topped the classification in the end. Louis' time was 1:43.905 and he completed 24 laps.

See you tomorrow for the second day! Stay tuned there!

2018 PRE-SEASON TESTING: GOOD JOB, BABY!

This was the final day of pre-season testing. 

The best driver in the morning session was George Russell of ART, and Louis made the 5th time, 1:43.239, completing 43 laps. His teammate Antonio Fuoco was the second driver to stop on the circuit causing the first red flag. Before him there was Roy Nissany of Campos to come to an halt on track. Dan Ticktum had a good first experience in the series, scoring the 10th time. The other Swiss, Ralph Boschung, ended 16th.

In the afternoon session the leader was Alex Albon, and Louis ended 6th, with a time of 1:43.428 and 50 laps completed.

See you on March 21st-23rd, with tests in Bahrain International Circuit, the circuit in which the season will start on April 6th-8th!

2018 PRE-SEASON TESTING: LOUIS IMPROVES

Good evening folks!

Lando Norris leaded both testing sessions today. Surely he's the man to beat this year! Ouch... this blog is not about Lando. We're here to talk about Louis! He ended the first session 4th. He completed 35 laps and his time was 1:42.698. 
In the morning behind Louis there was the Indian driver Arjun Maini, who arrives from GP3 and races with Trident. George Russell, GP3 reigning champion, had a technical problem who made him stop on the track. Talking about Prema, Nyck De Vries ended 7th and his teammate Sean Gelael stopped on the track as well as Roberto Merhi of MP Motorsport. As an Italian, I take a look at Luca Ghiotto, who ended 8th, and Antonio Fuoco, Louis' teammate, who was only 13rd.
Talking about afternoon, Louis made it to the Top-3, with a time of 1:42.803 and a total of 45 laps completed. He improved a lot... I hope to see him improving again tomorrow!

2018 PRE-SEASON TESTING: THE BEGINNING

Finally, today FIA F2 kicked off in Le Castellet, in the South of France. The Carlin driver Lando Norris setted the fastest time. In the first hour there were some red flags because of spins and, unluckily for us, Louis stopped at the exit of the pitlane. 

However, he completed 19 laps and his time was 1:58.619. The other Swiss driver, Ralph Boschung, recently confirmed by MP Motorsport, obtained the second time.

UPDATE: in the afternoon Louis obtained the 13º time, 1:44.807, completing 11 laps.

BETWEEN LOUIS AND THE SEA - #1: THE BEGINNING OF AN UNFORGETTABLE HOLIDAY

Last summer on my Instagram page I posted this fanfiction; as far as I know it's the first one ever about Louis. It was written in Italian, so my foreign friends couldn't understand it. I made an English translation. 

The original title "Tra Louis e il Mare" comes from a song by Laura Pausini, "Tra Te e il Mare" 

Suitcases were ready, train tickets too, the hotel was already booked... Finally my mum and me would have left for our little holiday in Lido di Camaiore, on the marvellous coast of Tuscany. Dad was not there. We were only two of us. I've never been particulary fond of sea and beach life, I've always been more for cultural tourism. But when my mum had proposed me this holiday together I had not hesitated to answer her yes. We wouldn't have stayed only on the beach, we also would have visited the village and other towns, bringing home many wonderful memories.

The journey on the train went well; there weren't delays or failures. When we arrived at the Viareggio station we took a bus which would have finally taken us to our destination. The hotel in which we would have stayed immediately pleased me, it was sober and without too many frills, with friendly staff... but the thing that struck me the most was the fact that there were some boys in the hall. I was surprised, because from what we had read on the Internet the average age of the clientele was quite high. "Well, better that way" I thought, "maybe I can make friends with someone". However, at a certain point, I couldn't believe my eyes. One of the guys looked amazingly like Norman Nato, the Formula 2 driver! I actually underestimated that: "Maybe he's only a guy who looks like him..." After we settled in the room, my mother announced: "I take a nap, you can have a stroll in the village..." I came out of the room and I started to discover the village. Here and there I took some selfies. The smell of the sea was channeling in the narrow streets, I was hearing that many languages were spoken: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese...

When I arrived in a small square, my eyes met the ones of a boy with Asian features and a dark skin. He surely wasn't Chinese, Japanese or Korean. He looked more like a South-Eastern Asian. And thinking about him, he reminded me of someone I had already seen somewhere. "No... it's not possible he's Sean Gelael... maybe I have allucinations... first the boy in the hall who looked like Nato and now Gelael's double..." In the meantime, he had set his eyes on me.

"Hello, lady! What's the matter?" he asked me. 

"My name is Vicky. I'm here on holiday. My mum is sleeping in the hotel room" 

He gave me his hand. "I'm Sean, nice to meet you!" His name was Sean, like Gelael. And moreover he looked amazingly like him. 

"Where are you from?" I asked him. 

"I'm from Indonesia, but I live in London" 

"Do you race in Formula 2?" 

"Yes, I do"

I didn't believe my ears. So he really was the driver! "We're here in Italy for some relax. We arrived this morning; We are staying in a very nice hotel close to the beach"

"When I arrived I noticed a youngster in the hall who looked like Norman Nato"

"Cool! So we are in the same hotel. If you want we can sign you some autographs and you can take some photos with us!"

"That's fantastic! My mum is a fond of Formula 2, too"

Sean and me walked together for about an hour in the narrow streets of the old town. I understood that he was a bit flirting with me. He was trying to take my hand while we were walking. I was leaving him to do it; he was doing nothing of bad. We stopped close to a souvenir shop. 

"Let's take a selfie!" he proposed me. 

"With your phone or with mine?" 

"Both" 

I took my smartphone and I opened the front camera. We put ourselves in pose. I felt our noses touching and rub each other. I was speechless. I saw that we both were fiery red. When we took the selfie again, but with his smartphone, the scene was repeated. It was obvious that Sean liked me, there wasn't so much to do. How would he have reacted to knowing that my heart was beating for his colleague Louis Delétraz? When we returned to our hotel, I had a confirmation of what I thought... "You are a very nice and polite girl. Do you feel like going out with me again, tomorrow?" 

I thought Sean was a nice and polite boy, too. But he didn't give me the same emotions as Louis. But... who had known it, maybe through him I could have get in touch with the Swiss driver of Racing Engineering. So I told him: "I'm afraid to tell you that I like Louis Delétraz" 

I heard a little hint of jealousy in the Indonesian driver's voice: "Oh, Louis. He is here, too. Do you already know him?"

"We exchanged some messages on Instagram direct"

"Maybe I can introduce him to you"

"That would be awesome! See you soon, Sean"

"See you soon, Vicky"

I've always been a little skeptical about introducing boys through common friends. When I was in high school, it happened that my classmates and other friends introduced me to boys known by them. But I've never liked them very much. The boys I really used to fall in love with were always the ones that I noticed by myself, without others' interference. However, this time the situation was different. I had already exchanged messages with Louis, I loved him... so it was only about knowing him in person.

TWINKLE TWINKLE TV STAR

Louis Delétraz often makes TV appearances, as he is a talented racing driver and a very nice boy. In February 2013 he attended the Swiss TV show "Generation Champions", hosted by Michel Robadin, along with his father Jean-Denis Delétraz, Marcel Fässler and Edoardo Mortara. Here you can watch the video. It's only in French.

Two years later, he appeared on the TV channel Léman Bleu. He was interviewed at the Geneva Motor Show. He's so sexy wearing his black suit and speaking French with that Genevan accent!

NO PAIN, NO GAIN

The young Swiss had his first taste of Formula 2 in November 2016, when it was still named GP2 Series. He raced with Carlin in the last round of the season, held in Abu Dhabi. However, he was not so lucky, as he retired in the Feature Race and finished 17th in the Sprint Race, scoring no points.

In December, after successful tests, he signed a contract for the 2017 Formula 2 season for the Spanish team Racing Engineering, the team owned by the nobleman Alfonso d'Orléans-Bourbon. His teammate was the Swedish Gustav Malja, known by Louis since his period in Formula Renault 2.0 NEC. Louis struggled a lot with Racing Engineering, achieving as his best result a 10th place in the Hungarian Feature Race. He had only one retirement, in the Baku Sprint Race.

Before the Spa-Francorchamps round, Louis swapped his seat with Nyck de Vries, so he switched to the Italian team Rapax. His results improved: he scored points in both the Monza races and in the Feature Race in Abu Dhabi. Unluckily, in the Abu Dhabi Sprint Race he retired. His best result of his whole season was the 4th place in the Sprint Race in Monza.

Ouch! I forgot to say that sadly, at the beginning of the season, despite his results in 2016, he was dropped out of the Renault Sport Academy for mysterious reasons.