How Théo Pourchaire experienced his first outing on track in IndyCar

After more than two weeks of waiting in Indianapolis and doing simulators while waiting for the officialization, Theo Pourchaire was finally able to launch his adventure IndyCar. If only for a freelance role, replacing David Malukas at McLaren, the Grassois does not take this challenge lightly. An opportunity for him to show himself on the other side of the Atlantic with a view to a possible arrival in the championship in the future.

This Friday, the Habs were able to take to the track for the first time. The action took place in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, with an outing as part of free practice. The opportunity to get your bearings on an urban circuit renowned for its ability to challenge drivers but also to measure yourself against your new friends over the course of a weekend.

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Soft start but good sensations

On the bouncy asphalt of Long Beach, Théo Pourchaire then appeared very active during the hour and a quarter of training this Friday. He was even the most active on the track with no less than 35 laps completed, tied with Pietro Fittipaldi (RLL Racing).

For this first outing, however, the objective was not the clock but to take benchmarks with a view to qualifying this Saturday (20:25 p.m. French time) because the Frenchman ranked 21^e (out of 27) with a best lap of 1'08"2857, 1"5983 behind the leader, his weekend teammate Pato O'Ward. Nothing dramatic when we take into account the context of this tenure.

 

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« It's incredible, he blurted out when summarizing his experience. I'm very happy to be behind the wheel. I felt very good in the car. The track is very bumpy. It is also very hard physically. I feel like Saturday will be a better day because I'm learning quickly. I'm happy that the team is helping me a lot. I am very happy."

Immersed in his first professional experience across the Atlantic, Théo Pourchaire was also able to discover the environment of an IndyCar paddock, very different from what he was able to experience in a weekend of F1 when he was still in F2. He therefore participated in the traditional signing session where he was able to interact with the fans who came to ask him for an autograph. Enough to feel a little more like a real IndyCar driver before actually becoming one in the future?

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