Luca Badoer is leaving Ferrari after an incredible 13 year stint as an F1 test driver. Yesterday at the Bologna Motor Show he drove in the Scuderia’s traditional Formula 1 demonstration and also took part in a special forum organised at the show by the Gazzetta dello Sport daily paper.

Badoer won the F3000 championship and raced in F1 for Scuderia Italia, Forti Corse and Minardi, joining Ferrari in 1998. He was a key part of Scuderia Ferrari's success in the glory years from 1999 to 2004 when they won the Constructors' Championship six times in a row.

Unlimited testing was a feature of F1 at the time, but when it was severely curtailed by the regulations, dedicated test drivers had little to do. Indeed when Badoer was called up to race for Ferrari in 2009 after Felipe Massa was injured he had not driven an F1 car for 10 months! Sadly he struggled through two GPs before being replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella, who did not do much better. Considering the latter nearly won the Belgian GP earlier that year when driving for Force India, this confirmed that the F60 was somewhat "difficult" and the unfortunate Badoer maybe not quite as bad as he had seemed.