Zamparelli inspires racing engineers of the future

Dino Zamparelli settles into his new car for the 2012 season... only joking! It's Ashlawn School's F24 Racer

Reigning Protyre Formula Renault BARC Champion Dino Zamparelli did his bit to help inspire the next generation of racing drivers and engineers recently, delivering a motivational talk and presentation to more than 250 pupils at Ashlawn School and Science College in Rugby.

The Bristol 19-year-old, who made history last November as the first driver from Protyre Formula Renault BARC to become a finalist in the prestigious McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, attended the Warwickshire secondary school earlier this month.

Invited along as part of a specially organised ‘Super Learning Day’ off-timetable event, Zamparelli, who is rightly regarded as one of Britain’s top young stars of the track, delivered an inspirational talk on the determination and resilience required to be successful in motorsport.

Following the talk in the main hall, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star met with the school’s own IET Formula 24 racing team – a group of pupils involved in the Greenpower Education Trust-led sustainable engineering project.

Sharing tips and offering great encouragement, Zamparelli provided a major boost to the team which is busy preparing for the first F24 event of the season at Silverstone in Northamptonshire on Sunday, 29th April. The Super Learning Day was rounded off, unsurprisingly, with a very busy and popular autograph signing session.

“It’s fantastic to see such enthusiastic young engineers who, I’m sure, will be the race engineers of the future”, said Zamparelli, “Meeting the F24 boys was great and I think it was good for them to meet someone who is involved in racing, it was nice seeing the car they’ve produced and it’s great for the engineering side of the sport that young people are so interested.

“Through the main talk I just wanted to try and give the pupils the motivation to think it is possible to do something and that you should always believe in yourself, not be swayed by what other people may say or think.”

Science College co-ordinator Liselle Dixon commented: “Dino left the students feeling really inspired and we all agreed he’s a fantastic ambassador to the sport. We’re delighted he was able to come and give such a fantastic, motivating talk to the pupils. We’ll definitely be following his progress this year and wish him the very best of luck for his future.”

The battle to succeed Zamparelli as Protyre Formula Renault BARC Champion will begin less than seven weeks from now when rounds one, two and three of the 2012 season take place at Snetterton in Norfolk on 7th/8th April. Zamparelli, meanwhile, is working hard to try and secure the budget to graduate to the FIA Formula 2 Championship this year.