Ferrari recruits its first Italian driver since 2018 for its academy

A future champion in the making joins Ferrari. Team announced this Friday the arrival of Filippo Sala in its academy. The Italian, born in 2011, started the karting in 2015 and won his first race in 2017. A promising start, confirmed by an exceptional season in 2018.

At just 7 years old, Sala crushed the Entry Level 60 championship by winning 18 of the 21 races, before moving to the United States the following year. Across the Atlantic, the boy confirmed his fine talents, also benefiting from a lower legal age for driving than in Europe (8 years old compared to 9).

Filippo once again dazzled the Challenge of America with his talent, securing the title with five wins in six races. In 2020, he became Easykart World Champion, and then continued his winning ways: IAME 60 champion in 2021, winner of the Trofeo delle Industrie in 2022 and 2024.

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Now competing in WSK, Filippo Sala won at Sarno in the OK class and finished second at Franciacorta. After five rounds, he is fourth in the championship. Filippo Sala's arrival follows that of Noah Baglin, a young British driver born in 2012 who joined the Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of March.

Since the program was created in 2009, 26 people – including Sala – have passed through the Prancing Horse training center, but the 13-year-old is the first Italian since Antonio Fuoco, recruited in 2018. The latter still wears the colors of Ferrari, with whom he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2024 with his teammates Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina.

There will be seven of them this season in the academy: Maya Weug and Aurelia Nobels in F1 Academy, Rafael Câmara and Tuukka Taponen in Formula 3, Dino Beganovic in Formula 2, and Noah Baglin and Filippo Sala in karting.