Álex Palou enjoyed his first official free practice session in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship on Friday, with the Spaniard running for the McLaren F1 Team at the Circuit of the Americas in place of regular driver Daniel Ricciardo.
The 2021 NTT IndyCar Series champion, who races for Chip Ganassi Racing in the championship, had tested several times in previous years’ machinery with McLaren ahead of his Grand Prix weekend debut, and Palou reckons this programme helped him settle into the session quicker.
Palou said it was a different experience running in someone else’s car during the session, but he got as comfortable behind the wheel of the MCL36 as he felt he could and completed twenty-one laps on his way to seventeenth fastest at the Circuit of the Americas.
“Awesome. I’m super-happy. The session went really well,” said Palou. “You always think that you’re ready but you never know when you come here.
“Obviously there’s a bit of pressure of having a car that’s not yours, that has to go out on the track again a short time later, along with all the data we had to collect for the team.
“I think the Driver Development Programme work that we did before coming here was awesome because it got me ready for today – and I think I did everything I could in an hour.
“I felt as comfortable as I could expect. Obviously not my car, not my team environment either – but I still felt really comfortable, and I think we achieved what we wanted, so really, really happy.”
Andrea Stella, the Executive Director of Racing at McLaren, said Palou adapted well to the Formula 1 machinery and did everything that was asked of him, with the Spaniard giving some good feedback and information to the team that should help them across the remainder of the weekend.
“We ran Alex Palou in FP1, and we’re all very impressed with his performance,” said Stella.
“He prepared really well and executed the run plan exactly as we wished, always in control of the car, delivering valuable information – well done Alex.”
