Mexico City, 4th December 2008. A dream came true for Philipp Eng (AT) today at the “Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez”: The 18-year-old completed a total of 26 laps at the wheel of a BMW Sauber F1 Team car on the former Formula One track in the heart of Mexico City (MX). Eng earned his chance for this drive last year when he won the Formula BMW World Final in Valencia (ES). Starting on Friday, 21 talented youngsters from the three international Formula BMW series will try to follow in his footsteps.

 

Eng was absolutely delighted with his appearance for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. He said: “This has been a fantastic experience. I quickly got used to the car and gained confidence with every kilometre. You soon work out where the ideal points are for gear shifting, and also learn the perfect braking points. It’s a very nice feeling if you can improve lap-by-lap.”

 

Before Eng, Marco Holzer (DE) and Christian Vietoris (DE) had also been rewarded with a Formula One testing opportunity following their victories in the 2005 and 2006 Formula BMW World Finals. Nico Rosberg (DE), Ho-Pin Tung (CN) and Sebastian Vettel (DE) are three former Formula BMW drivers who also gained their first Formula One experiences with the support of BMW.

 

Eng added: “A big thank you goes to BMW for giving me this great opportunity to drive an F1 car. I was mostly impressed by the brakes. The deceleration of such a car is very extreme – and better than any other car I have driven so far in my career. This test gives me a massive motivational boost to continue working with the same determination as in the past years.”

 

The first free practice session on Friday from 09:30hrs will open the official programme for the Formula BMW World Final 2008. The competitors will have plenty of track time thanks to an interesting event format, which includes four practice sessions, qualifying, a super pole competition and three heats. On Sunday it’s then time for the final race, which is the conclusion of the successful 2008 Formula BMW season.

 

For the first time, the young-gun series visits the American continent for this unique event. “To do my maiden Formula One drive here in Mexico City obviously added a lot to the special atmosphere”, confirmed Eng. “This track has a long history and many great champions have celebrated victories here. I’m convinced the competitors in this year’s Formula BMW World Final will also be especially motivated to score a great result here.”

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