13/02/2012 - Manfeild's round archived the Toyota Racing Series 2012 that witnessed the official debut of Michela Cerruti at the wheel of a single seater.
After securing the thirteenth place on the starting grid of race one and the sixteenth of race three (race two grid was delineated according to race one's results), the young Milanese driver kept a good pace in race one and finished fifteenth due to a non-perfect start.

In race two Michela kept fighting and ended again in fifteenth after some overtaking manoeuvres; race three started from the back due to a technical problem that stopped her for a few seconds in the warm-up lap. During the thirty-five laps of the race Cerruti recovered several positions and climbed all the way up to the twelfth place setting a best lap less than a second shy of the fastest lap of the race.

Michela Cerruti:
"Things went well in Manfeild too, despite getaways have been spoiled by the problems caused by a worn clutch. In race two I battled a lot and I managed to perform the 'overtake of a lifetime'; in race three I managed to do a good recovery. Progress has been constant since the first race and even if I did not expect to receive the 'Most Improved Driver' award that is given considering the background and the improvement of each driver throughout the series.
This long exit in New Zealand ended for me in a positive way with the target reached of getting acquainted with a technical end demanding car like a single seater. Result-wise, I would have liked to finish a few positions ahead but being an absolute rookie it is fine like this. I would repeat this experience a thousands of times and I am sure this will pay off in the future"

08/02/2012 - The Toyota Racing Series is about to live the final round of 2012 this weekend. The circuit of Manfeild (New Zealand) will house from Thursday on the fifth and last round of an intense competition that allowed Michela Cerruti to debut at the wheel of a single seater and to progressively acquire more and more experience.

The young driver from Milan sustained well the remarkable physical demands of the consecutive racing weekends and reached a fitness shape that will be useful for the Italian GT Championship, where she will be racing as works driver for BMW Team Italy.

Michela Cerruti:
"Manfeild is a rather small and not very wide circuit. I did not get such a good feeling yesterday when I first saw it, but I am waiting for the first free practice session to get a more precise idea. I hope to keep the momentum and to progress as done in Hampton Downs; the last of the three races scheduled here will be on the length of 35 laps: a 'grand finale' that will test drivers also from the fitness viewpoint".

06/02/2012 - Positive signals for Michela Cerruti in the round of Hampton Downs, fourth and penultimate weekend of the Toyota Racing Series, taking place in New Zealand.

The Milanese driver found herself at ease on the circuit located south of Auckland, keeping herself constantly in the mid part of the classification. This was confirmed in qualifying, her best session so far in terms of gap to the top, where she set the seventeenth final position but at just 1.220 seconds from the pole position.

A contact with a rival and the following damage to the front wing spoiled the outcome of race one, that was ended in seventeenth place. Race two saw Michela recovering from the back all the way up to the tenth position under the chequered flag hitting the target of ending in the top ten for the second time. In race three, charcterized by several contacts, Michela Cerruti defended herself well finishing eleventh after starting from the seventeenth place of the grid.

Michela Cerruti:
"Hampton Downs is a nice track, twisted and funny to drive on, even if it is less technical than Taupo. I liked it from the beginning and this helped me to find the right rhythm and to limit the gap from the frontrunners, which are the main objectives I have been recently working on. Despite the results, this weekend highlighted some good progress and gave me the chance of learning something new; overall the participation to the Toyota Racing Series is turning out to be extremely useful and I hope to end positively this experience next weekend in Manfeild".

02/02/2012 - Michela Cerruti will take part in the Italian GT Championship behind the wheel of a BMW Z4 GT3 lined up by BMW Team Italy. The Milanese driver, currently racing in New Zealand's Toyota Racing Series after a positive 2011 in the Superstars Series, will be at her first season as works driver in a championship that announces to be very interesting and competitive due to the presence of Audi, Ferrari and Porsche.

Michela Cerruti:
"The agreement with BMW Team Italy is another important page of my career as racing driver and a great opportunity. Working side by side with an icon of motor-racing like Roberto Ravaglia will allow me to learn a lot within a team that has been competing at the pinnacle of the sport in the whole world for several years. The BMW Z4 GT3 is an exciting car that is ready to become the new reference point of the Italian GT Championship. The chance of partaking in the 24 Hours of Spa and in International races complete a thrilling programme that increases my desire to get on track for the first test".

29/01/2012 - Michela Cerruti has been racing this weekend in Taupo (New Zealand) where she run the third round of the Toyota Racing Series in her debut season at the wheel of a single seater.

The progress shown during free practice unfortunately was not confirmed in Saturday's qualifying that ended with the eighteenth place of the starting grid (01:25.909), with a best performance 6 to 7 tenths slower than the ideal lap. The Milanese driver managed anyway to recover three positions in race one and, despite a brakes overheating problem, she climbed up to the fifteenth final place that awarded her with 22 points valid for the classification.

A contact at the start of race two damaged her front wing and forced Michela Cerruti back to the pits to get it repaired a few laps afterwards. The unscheduled stop made her go one lap down and relegated the Italian driver to the sixteenth place.

The young Milanese driver showed a good pace in race three where she managed to stay close to her rivals and, thanks to her usual grit, she recovered a couple of places before being victim of a spin in a corner. Back on track, Michela ended the race in seventeenth position under the chequered flag.

Michela Cerruti is currently fifteenth in the classification at 216 points, less than 100 lengths from the top ten.

Michela Cerruti:
"I liked Taupo circuit more than the racetracks found so far. I was at ease since the beginning on this more technical, wide and long layout.
I improved a lot during free practice and I managed to stay close to the rivals, but in qualifying things could have been better. My ideal time was 6-7 tenths faster but I suffered a bit the stress and could not find the best lap: I am working on it!
Results-wise it has not been a great weekend but the improvement has been evident and this is what is important. I just have to keep working to improve my performance faster during the weekend".

The Toyota Racing Series will be back on track next weekend at Hampton Downs for the fourth and penultimate round of the season.

24/01/2012 - The Toyota Racing Series is moving to Taupo (New Zealand) where the third round of the season, the turning point of a very compact calendar featuring five consecutive rounds, will be on stage this weekend.

After a good start in Teretonga and the mileage clocked up in Timaru, a circuit not suiting very much her characteristics, Michela Cerruti will find this coming weekend a racetrack with features closer to those of European tracks with higher width and a mixture of slow and fast corners for a total length of 3.320 meters.

Michela Cerruti:
"Taupo is a less 'karting' circuit than Timaru, which is certainly positive to me and hopefully will make the life easier for a driver at her third racing weekend on a single seater. I will try to give my best as always and I will have the objective of finding the limit and trying to get there as quickly as possible".

The weekend's programme follows (GMT+1):

Friday 27 January
23.00 - 0.00: Qualifying

Saturday 28 January
02.40: Race 1
23.00: Race 2

Sunday 29 January
02.30: Race 3

22/01/2012 - Apprenticeship weekend for Michela Cerruti in Timaru (New Zealand), stage of the second round of the Toyota Racing Series,the championship run in five weekends in a row reserved to Tatuus cars powered by a Toyota 1.8 liters engine.

After the eighteenth time in qualifying held Saturday (01:04.928) the Milanese driver run a conservative race one where she crossed the finish line in seventeenth. Race two started on wet conditions and a rival was stranded at the sart made Michela lose precious time while she tried to avoid the collision. Her lap times, especially on wet tarmac, settled afterwards on encouraging levels and took the Milanese driver to the fourteenth final place.

Race three had a similar plot with the Italian driver finishing sixteenth at the chequered flag leading a race on constant good times but still hunting for the half a second per lap that would allow her to stay closer to the top ten.

Michela Cerruti:
"Timaru's weekend allowed me to get to know the car a bit better even if we did not get particular results.
As I imagined, the features of the racetrack made of long and not very fast corners, did not suit much my driving style and therefore it has not been easy to find the right rhythm starting from free practice. The main difficulty for me is now to find the car's limits in every corner and I get closer to that point during the weekend but that I am still struggling to get right there. I improved as the sessions went by but progress was a bit too slow; this is normal as I do not have previous experience on driving single seaters but the Toyota Racing Series is run on five weekends only and the clock is ticking, therefore I will have to hurry up. Mountains are always climbed from the bottom!".

The Toyota Racing Series will be back on track this coming weekend in Taupo.

17/01/2012 - Michela Cerruti's adventure in New Zealand, where she is racing for the first time a single seater in the Toyota Racing Series, started positively last weekend in Teretonga, a round characterized by bad weather and several session stops.

In the thirty minutes long qualifying held last Saturday under heavy rain, the Milanese driver managed to complete only one fast lap before being victim of an excursion during which she managed to avoid hitting the barriers. The wet gravel trap did not allow her to get back on track and relegated the Michela Cerruti to the eighteenth place of race one's starting grid.

Michela led a clever race one where she paid attention not to make any mistakes and avoided contacts with rivals. The final tenth place and the first 33 points were a very good starting point that awarded a perfect tactics for a rookie of single seaters.

The second and third race were spoiled by a endless series of yellow and red flags and safety car deployments as rain was falling heavily on the circuit after the break of race one. Another tenth and a thirteenth final place allowed Michela to end the first of the five rounds in tenth position out of twenty entered drivers. The Milanese driver will be back on track from Thursday on at Timaru for the second round of the series.

Michela Cerruti:
"In qualifying rain was very heavy which was not the ideal condition for a rookie but I believe that I could have improved my grid position by a couple of places if it was not for that excursion. In the race everything was new to me, beginning from the standing start on which I still have to work a lot; I am happy anyway for getting the first points and for being in the top ten since the beginning.
The other two races, and the thousand breaks with them, allowed me to get acquainted with rainy conditions... well with super rain! Jokes apart, telemetry data is encouraging and does not highlight particular driving mistakes therefore I am hopeful on getting some satisfaction as soon as I get more confidence with the car.
Now we are heading to Timaru, a racetrack featuring very long mid-speed corners that I normally do not love much. Weather and temperatures are scheduled to be milder than Teretonga's therefore I hope I can get some more good results".

10/01/2012 - Michela Cerruti will start 2012 with a new and exciting challenge as the young driver is now ready for the official debut behind the wheel of a single seater after the testing sessions held in the past months that allowed her to get acquainted with the GP3 and Formula 3 challengers.

The ambitious Milanese driver set off for New Zealand last Thursday where she will take part in the Toyota Racing Series, a championship run on five consecutive rounds from 15 January to 12 February.

Cerruti will defend the colors of team Victory Motor Racing and will be the only Italian driver at the start with Raffaele Marciello, the pupil of Ferrari Driver Academy. Michela will use a crash helmet renovated in its graphic design but it will anyway have the unmissable pink background that has always been marking her sportive deeds.

Michela Cerruti:
"After a 2011 full of satisfaction in touring cars I decided to accept a new challenge and to try and compete behind the wheel of a single seater. My professional career is certainly peculiar as normally drivers get to cover wheels after an experience in formulas and not the other way round, therefore I will probably have a lot of difficulties especially at the beginning.

The Toyota Racing Series is an ideal chance for me, in a bit more than a month I will acquire the experience of an entire championship; on the cons side, all the circuits will be completely new to me and this experience will require a lot of physical strength. As absolute rookie it is difficult to talk about objectives, but I am sure that this long exit will be an important step in my career".

Toyota Racing Series 2012

15 January: Tetetonga
22 January: Timaru
29 January: Taupo
05 February: Hampton Downs
12 February: Manfeild