Felipe Drugovich completed his first free practice session with Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team on the final Friday of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Drugovich was recently crowned FIA Formula 2 Champion, and he was hired as the official Aston Martin reserve a few weeks ago, replacing the new Haas F1 Team driver Nico Hülkenberg. Having had some time in a 2021 Aston Martin a couple of weeks ago to qualify for a free practice outing, Friday saw his first official test, and while he finished last out of the twenty drivers, he felt it was good experience for the young Brazilian driver.
His best lap time of the session was a 1.28.672 on the soft tyre towards the end of the session. He completed twenty-three laps and showed some relatively decent pace throughout.
Drugovich was pleased with his contribution and was happy to help the team prepare the car, while also getting a chance to push on a softer compound of tyre.
“It was a really good FP1 session today,” said Drugovich. “We kept to the run plan: we wanted to try a few things with the car early on and it felt pretty good out there. After that, I also had a Soft tyre run which was nice.
“It was my first laps with the AMR22 and my first proper dry laps in a Formula One car and I really enjoyed it. Now, I look forward to working with the team again in the post-season test on Tuesday.”
