Marcus Simmons's Stars of Tomorrow
In a new monthly column, Marcus Simmons scours motorsport's junior ranks and picks out the rising stars making the biggest impression on the road towards Formula 1
Antonio Fuoco
He doesn't celebrate his 17th birthday until next week, but already this Italian is showing he has a strong chance of following fellow Ferrari Driver Academy recruit Raffaele Marciello up the ranks after winning three of the first four Formula Renault ALPS races.
Like Formula 3 European Championship leader Marciello, Fuoco is being run by Prema Powerteam, which itself has won all four ALPS races held to date this season on its return to Formula Renault.
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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.
Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.
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