Already three times world champion, Fabio Barone is ready to attempt not one but two records: travel 600 meters of hairpin bends in less than 3 minutes that lead to the statue of Christ the Redeemer, in Maratea, and then arrive in less than 49 hours from Rome. to the North Cape trying to beat none other than Google Maps, all aboard the new Ferrari F8 Tributo.
The Roman driver, president of the “Passione Rossa” club, a great Ferrari enthusiast and already winner of three Speed World Records, will attempt the “double” on May 30 and then on July 16: we start with Maratea, where Barone will attempt the climb against the statue of Christ, without a navigator, trying to get to the top in less than three minutes along 600 meters of hairpin bends protected by the guardrail.
The road will be closed specifically for the occasion and made safe by the police: rehearsals will take place on Saturday 29 May in the afternoon, while the record attempt will be made on Sunday 30 at 7.
The first test will then lead Barone to the second, even more demanding: on July 16, for the Ferrari Guinness World Record 2021, the 49-year-old driver will challenge Google Maps to cover the more than 4,400 km of distance between Rome and the North Cape in the shortest possible time. The event is sponsored by the Municipality of Rome and the Farnesia, and takes place in collaboration with the Italian Timekeepers Federation.
Barone will face the test with co-driver Alessandro Tedino, once again aboard the F8 Tributo: departure from the Imperial Fora to reach California in less than 49 hours, which is the time calculated by Google Maps to cover the distance that separates the colon. The event will be fully streamed live on the platforms of Passione Rossa with the monitoring of the Italian Federation of Timekeepers and Allemano chronometers.
“The idea was inspired by a historical magazine of Fiat dating back to 1953 which told of four daring young people who, aboard a Balilla, left Rome and reached the North Cape, returning to the capital after 45 days of travel – said Barone. – A real undertaking for the time. Hence the idea for an unprecedented undertaking: to be able to bridge the same distance that the virtual car of Google Maps claims to cover in 49 hours in a shorter period of time, all while maintaining the regular speed limits in each country ” .
A decidedly demanding challenge, but the Roman driver has already faced several equally complex ones: in 2015 he traveled the Transfăgărășan, the Romanian national road that winds through northern Transylvania, reaching the slopes of Dracula’s castle, the following year has climbed the Tianmen Mountain Road, one of the most dangerous routes in the world, tackling its 99 curves and going from 200 to 1300 meters in height, in 2018 the third speed record among the spectacular Canyons of the Dades Valley, in Morocco.
