How a boyhood Ferrari fan ended up with the best job in the world

In a 30-plus-year career with Ferrari, test driver and multiple sportscar championship winner Andrea Bertolini is the embodiment of living the dream. This is his story

Andrea Bertolini might just have the best job in the world. He gets to race Ferrari sportscars at international level and also drive its Formula 1 machinery of all vintages on a regular basis. No wonder a man who as a child used to be hoicked up onto his father’s shoulders to see what was going on over the walls of the Fiorano test track sometimes has to pinch himself.

Bertolini has worked for Ferrari man and boy: he joined the Italian marque as an apprentice aged 17 and has fulfilled a multitude of roles since: road car development driver; factory sportscar racer (and a successful one at that); a tester for the F1 team and its lead simulator man.

In this article

Gary Watkins

WEC

Formula 1

Andrea Bertolini

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.