Théo Pourchaire: “I had a smile behind the visor”

When leaving his car at around 15 p.m. local time on Friday, Theo Pourchaire had a hard time letting go of his enormous smile. On the Texan slide, the 19-year-old took his first official adrenaline shot in Formula 1, at the wheel of theAlfa Romeo de Valtteri Bottas. The Habs perfectly carried out the program that the Hinwil team had asked them to carry out, to the point that they managed to almost match the times of Guanyu-Zhou on the relays with a full tank of gasoline. 

A few hours after his ride, at the microphone of Canal+, Théo expressed his amazement, his smile still stuck from ear to ear. “It was truly an incredible sessionhe confided. It was the first FP1 of my career. I followed the program to the letter, everything went well. I tried to push the limits, even if I was a little far sometimes. But it's not the performance that counts, it was more the fact of familiarizing myself with the car and the circuit. This route is complicated but it is one of the most beautiful on the planet!”

Théo Pourchaire had a smile on Austin’s face! © Florent Gooden / DPPI

Despite the pressure inherent in this first Grand Prix run, alongside Max Verstappen and other Lewis Hamilton, Théo did not fail to take advantage of his moment. “When my engineer told me that it was the last lap of the session, I clearly told myself that I was going to enjoy it, that we didn't know what the future would bring. I enjoyed it a lot, I had a smile behind my visor. I was happy. I thank the team for the incredible opportunity. This ride was also useful to them because they did a lot of testing.”

“The most impressive thing was traffic management. It's very difficult especially for a rookie who comes from F2. When we are told that the cars are 5 or 7 seconds behind, in two turns they are just behind! So you have to get out of the way quickly. Not to mention the parameters to manage on the steering wheel. But the most impressive thing is still the passing speed in fast corners. It's really crazy. Sector 1 here is fantastic but I have to say it’s a bit scary at times.” The Frenchman is unfortunately not expected to take part in a second session, since Guanyu Zhou was considered a rookie in Bahrain during the first round of the season. 

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