MPH: Mark Hughes on...

There was a time when Luca Badoer was a coming man, climbing the career ladder to Formula 1 very quickly. After a stellar karting career, he was the fastest guy in the '91 Italian Formula 3 Championship, something he parlayed into a title-winning campaign in Formula 3000 in '92, beating such as Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard.

He was unlucky that his F1 career break came with the lamentable '93 Lola-Ferrari. It killed his career momentum, left him as a guy picking up drives with the likes of Minardi and Forti for the next few years.

In 1998, he got himself into a vastly superior car: the Ferrari. But only as the team's official test driver. He's now entering his 11th season in the same role. Catching up with him in Bahrain testing, it became clear that the passing of time has eased any pain he felt at the transition from F1 racer to tester.

The years out of the spotlight have left him out of demand with interviewers, but paradoxically more interesting to talk with. Here's the man who has probably done more miles in F1 Ferraris than any other in history, who's seen close-up the way Michael Schumacher worked and how it differs with Kimi Raikkonen, who's looked at the telemetry traces of them all, who has seen the transition from the Todt/Brawn/Byrne era into the current team.

He looked fit, fresh and untroubled from pounding the F2008 around Bahrain all day. He's 37 now, but could pass for 10 years younger. He has an informal take-me-or- leave-me air about him and the intensity of ambition has long left him. He's very relaxed in his skin. That is probably a very significant point, something that has allowed him to excel in his current position.

He knows where he stands - some way south of Michael Schumacher probably, but about on a par with most of those who partnered the German and heard the cheers of the crowd while Luca pounded around the test tracks.

"In my mind, there is always still the possibility I could race with Ferrari," he says with the air of someone who thinks it unlikely. "I am still the official third driver. But my real job is tester. In a way I sacrificed my career to do this, but Ferrari is Ferrari and it's not really a sacrifice but something very special. I'm happy with the choice I made."

I wondered how gradual the process of acceptance was, how long it was before he came to think of himself as a test driver, stopped feeling like a race driver. "It was gradual," he allows, racer's blue eyes staring off into space as he tries to think back.

"I was thinking that after one to two years as tester, I would get the chance to be a race driver with the team, and that would have been my ideal choice. But it wasn't down to me! After those two years passed, I was getting offers from other teams to race. They probably wanted to know the Ferrari secrets and thought they could benefit from my experience. They weren't front-running teams, but small-medium teams, like I'd already raced with. I didn't want to just repeat that and so I stayed. It was an easy decision."

He doesn't say it specifically, but gives the impression that's when some sort of switch was made in his head, when the ambition was turned off.

From that moment on he devoted himself to being the best tester he could be. Driving the car fast and giving feedback was just the start of it. He began to take it to a new level as he integrated further and further with the team. Studying the telemetry, watching the way Schumacher operated as well as the way he drove, Luca determined to think as if he were Michael, to question, 'How would Michael drive this car?' 'What will Michael need from it?'

"He had his own very distinctive style," says Luca, "and I tried to drive it in the same style and think about the importance of different elements to his style, what can be good for it, what wouldn't work. He liked a car 'on the nose' with a powerful front, and wasn't too bothered about the rear. So I would think about that as I was helping develop the car. In time I developed a very special working relationship with him."

The line between Luca Badoer, and Luca Badoer doing a Schumacher impression, became increasingly blurred as time passed. For a racing driver, psychologically this would be tough. For someone who has surrendered his own identity as a racing driver it would be easier.

As this happened, so the development process became more efficient, and so Schumacher's trust in his findings was enhanced. "It wasn't just the telemetry I learned from. Also, I often would follow him on the test track and I'd see things there that when I put them together with the telemetry and what he was saying gave me an even better understanding. I learned a lot working with him."

It's not a relationship he has yet replicated with either Raikkonen or Felipe Massa: "I try to drive like them, try to understand what they like and prefer. It's an extra thing that comes with time. But at the moment, it's not as close as it was with Michael."

That applies to his relationship out of work with them too: "Everybody has their own way. I am open to be friends with everyone but it depends on the character of the other guy too. With Michael and me there was a connection. I have a good relationship with Kimi and Felipe - it will get better." And so is revealed yet more layering to the phenomenon that was Michael.

But Michael no longer races the car, Ross Brawn no longer directs it from the pit wall, Rory Byrne no longer designs it. But still the red cars win: "The whole thing at Ferrari is to concentrate on doing the maximum, and that has made the change so smooth. Everyone feels their responsibility in a very strong way."

Badoer is contracted for another two years of 'doing the maximum' after which, at 39, he'll review whether or not to continue, whether or not to keep trying to be 'someone else' in the car.