Ferrari Racing Days Experience at Yas Marina Circuit: Stuff of Dreams!

In our line of work – driving and reviewing cars – you get some unique opportunities at times, like the one I got recently – helping a friend spec his first Ferrari and getting to hang out with a Ferrari Racing Days customer program at the same time. Now, at my salary, I’ll probably never be speccing a new Ferrari on my money, but because a very close friend was doing so, and insisted I help him with it, at least I can vicariously live the life that the top one-percenters live. How wild is the lifestyle? How much effort goes into it? Well, I spent a couple of days in the middle east to find out.

Petrolhead's Dream 

The day starts with a breakfast at the lovely W Hotel at the Yas Marina Circuit, where the whole event is being held. After the coffees are done, we get a chance to walk into the circuit and are instantly smitten by the collection of limited edition Ferrari’s parked at the entrance – seeing an F40, F50, Enzo is a sight in itself after all. From there on, we move into the pits where you can see a smattering of cars from Ferrari’s customer racing programs.

As a result, we see many cars from the 488 Challenge Evo series, moving up the pecking order, next up are the 599 Challenge race cars. And at the absolute top of the pyramid are the FXX Challenge cars. While many would think that these race cars are just toys for the rich, what we could see in their construction and witness when they were running on the track, I can assure you, this is no poser program. The cars – and all of them – are serious race cars, and are setup for serious performance. As you witness the pit crews working on the cars and see them making detailed changes, you also realise this racing programme is run as seriously as any other customer program in the world.

Of course, with India rising economically, it’s not strange to find that the existing Ferrari racing programs also have Indian competitors and it’s good to see the Indian tri-colour on some of the racing cars. Also, many of the other Indian drivers participating in the series do come from the middle east – where a massive diaspora of Indians already exists.

While my friend spent time speccing his new Roma, and hoping to buy a couple of other Ferraris in the near future – with the supply and demand situation – getting a slot even on the waiting list for a Ferrari is a task in itself, I got to revel in some of the older racing cars on display. For me, one of the cars that I was fascinated by – other than the Purosangue, which I think is sensational, but that’s a story for another day – were the older Challenge Cup cars. Such as the 360 Challenge, which holds a special place in my heart. It was the car that stems from the era when Ferrari transformed itself into a modern brand, with none of the Italian quirkiness that the earlier cars had. And that, was beginning of the era which has resulted in it becoming the most recognised car brand in the world.