“It’s fast, it’s insane!” Alex Palou discusses an ‘unbelievably fast’ FP1 debut with McLaren at the US GP
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Alex Palou
Alex Palou got his chance to get inside an F1 car after replacing Daniel Ricciardo for a practice session. With the new norms of giving a young rookies a chance to drive and test their ability, McLaren chose Palou for the USA GP testing. Alex performed well, but only did long runs well, managing a P17.
Lando Norris was two seconds faster than Alex but this part could be exempted as Palou didn’t really have a run on the softs and was driving around the track only on Mediums. Palou is the 2021 Indy Car champion but driving a Formula 1 car is very much different from what an IndyCar is.
Alex Palou was shocked by the speed of an F1 car, “It’s fast, it’s insane! Obviously, I was lucky to test before the 2021 car, so that already gave me the feeling of an F1 car. the car was capable of so much that I just overshot it in some places, which I think is good,” He said as per Autosport.
Alex Palou on his improvements with the car
Though the car was fast and Palou knew he could have done more, he still only managed a P17 which was equivalently slow. But Alex had marked a few points on improvement to make the best out of the car next time he has the opportunity to get himself inside. At COTA, he was still cautious with the car, as the race is still ahead.
“What would I improve? I think just more laps and getting obviously another set of tyres at the end would have helped,” he explained.
The Spaniard added: “But our programme today was not to go fast, it was to get data for the team at the beginning, which we did… And then we focused on me,”
McLaren has already had a lineup done for the 2023 season. With Oscar Piastri entering the sport and Lando Norris continuing with McLaren, the Papaya team will look forward to a possible change in the pecking order, and a future return to the ‘top’.
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Soham Raj Jain
(480 Articles Published)