This week’s final in-season Formula One test of the year at Silverstone saw a number of young drivers get the chance to showcase their skills in F1 machinery, with eight current and former FIA Formula 3 European Championship competitors driving among the total of 17 drivers involved in the two-day test.

Russia’s Nikita Mazepin, who currently races for Hitech GP in the FIA F3 European Championship, got his first taste of F1 machinery driving the Force India VJM09 across both days.

On day one the 17-year-old was fifth quickest in the dry morning session, with a time of 1:34.521 set on soft compound Pirelli tyres.

He didn’t run in the wet afternoon of the first day, but on day two the Russian worked through 69 laps of the Northamptonshire circuit and finished fourth on the timesheets behind Red Bull Junior driver and GP2 race winner Pierre Gasly. Mazepin’s best time was set on supersofts, while Gasly was on soft compound Pirelli tyres.

“These two days have been extremely useful and have no doubt been two of the biggest days of my life,” said Mazepin afterwards. “My main objective was to help the team out as much as possible and I’m pleased with how things went. We managed to test a lot of items and we also managed to do a few performance runs, which went very well. I kept working and chipping away at the laptime, finding places where I could improve every time I went out.

“This experience will help me in my position as development driver, as we continue to work on correlation for our simulator programme. It has been an incredibly enjoyable experience and I can’t wait to have another opportunity to jump in the car.”

“Nikita didn’t put a foot wrong all day, allowing us to gather lots of very valuable correlation data for the car,” said Force India’s Chief Race Engineer Tom McCullough afterwards. “With every run, he continued to improve, as we saw yesterday, and he kept exploring the limits of the car and giving us good feedback. Nikita’s progression has been as we expected and I am looking forward to continuing our development programme with him.”

Behind Mazepin, in ninth place on the day two timesheet, was Brazil’s Sérgio Sette Câmara, who took over at the wheel of Toro Rosso’s STR11 from regular race driver Carlos Sainz who raced in the 2012 F3 European Championship.

Sette Câmara, who like Gasly is part of Red Bull’s Junior Programme, enjoyed a productive F1 debut completing 82 laps for the Italian squad and recording a best time of 1:34.040.

Afterwards, Sette Câmara, who is in his second season of European F3 competition driving for Motopark, and who lies seventh in the overall standings, said he felt he had acquitted himself well.

“They [Toro Rosso] are happy, I think that is pretty much what they expected from a guy in an F1 car for the first time,” he said. “As long as you don’t make mistakes, drive consistently and they can extract some test or result out of it. A great day, great learning day.”

The Brazilian had one nervous moment when in the morning he lost control at the final corner and spun. He caught the car, however, and was able to continue without any issue.

“I got to the Astroturf where with the F3 you can use it with freedom but the F1 car didn’t like it very much and it snapped,” said Sette Camara. “Thankfully I could save it and that is part of it so it is good to get out of these scary moments.”

Elsewhere, Haas development driver Santino Ferrucci, who finished in 11^th place in the 2015 F3 European Championship before graduating to GP3 this year, had two days at the wheel for the US team, finishing in P7 on both days.

“I had a lot of confidence in the car to really push the limits,” he said after the final day at Silverstone. “Physically I felt good and the more laps I ran, the better I was feeling. Everything I’ve learned here will help me in the GP3 Series. The last couple of days have been a phenomenal experience. I couldn’t be happier.”

Last year’s fourth-placed driver in F3, Charles Leclerc, was at the wheel for Ferrari on day one, though the Monegasque racer had a disjointed day as he completed just 17 laps in the dry morning session, before remaining garage bound in the wet afternoon. He still managed to set day one’s fourth fastest time, however.

Jordan King, who finished seventh overall in 2014, before moving to GP2, was also on show for Manor on day two of the test, while 2013’s third-placed F3 drive Alex Lynn drove on day one for Williams, where the Briton is a development driver.

It was France’s Esteban Ocon, who won the 2014 FIA F3 European Championship title ahead of Tom Blomqvist and F1 sensation Max Verstappen, who finished highest of the young guns on both days however.

The Mercedes junior, who is also Renault F1’s third and reserve driver this year, drove the championship-leading team’s W07 on both days of the test, finishing in P2 on both days, with a test-best time of 1:31.212, just half a second adrift of pacesetting 2007 F1 champion Kimi Räikkönen. The French youngster also managed the test’s biggest lap total, too, posting a staggering 262 of the 5.89km circuit across the two days.