The free practice of the Mexican Grand Prix will probably be an excellent event for the teams to get their young talents out on track, in order to respect the rule introduced a few years ago which provides that each team must leave room for a rookie in at least two FP1s during the season.
In fact, considering that some of the upcoming events will feature sprinting, which would mean leaving no free practice sessions for the official drivers before qualifying, there are few events left for rookie drivers to race in, including Abu Dhabi. One of these could be Mexico, also because the second free practice session will be extended by 30 minutes to test the Pirelli tyres: this will give the official drivers the chance to recover half an hour of testing, among other things in a much more similar to that of the race.
McLaren has already announced that it will have Pato O’Ward running in free practice 1 in Mexico City, while at Aston Martin Felipe Drugovich will get into Fernando Alonso’s car for the Mexican FP1, and then give space to the Spaniard again for the rest of the weekend.
Felipe Drugovich, Aston Martin Racing, Pirelli Barcelona test
Photo by: Pirelli
The session will represent the Brazilian’s first race weekend outing in the AMR24, a car he helped develop through his work on the simulator. However, Drugovich has kept himself trained in recent months by riding old cars and carrying out some tests for the Pirelli tests, including the latest one in Barcelona where he tested the first prototypes of the tires that will debut in 2026.
In reality, the Brazilian should have taken to the track during the first free practice session on the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix in Monza: however, once the team realized that the resurfacing and curb work was more important than expected budgeted, he decided to leave Alonso in the car for FP1 too, in order to give the Spaniard the opportunity to get to grips with a track that had effectively changed its face.
“I’m really excited to drive the AMR24 for the first time, I’ve been looking forward to it for a while! I’ve spent a lot of the year working on the development of this car in the team’s simulator, so it will be invaluable to me feel the correlation between the simulator and reality”, explained Drugovich and for a driver in the simulator it is always essential to have real references to understand the behavior of the single-seater.
“The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is a track where I have never driven. It’s a challenging circuit with a mix of long straights and technical corners, so I’ll spend some time in the simulator to be ready for FP1. I want to thank Aston Martin Aramco for giving me this opportunity and Banco Master for its continued support.”
Felipe Drugovich testing with Pirelli in September
Photo by: Pirelli
However, it could be an important opportunity for the team to continue the data collection work, not only for the latest package expected in the next races, but also with a view to the next championship. In fact, in recent weeks Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have on several occasions dedicated part of free practice to extensive data collection work to study certain aspects with a view to 2025.
“We are thrilled to give Felipe this first opportunity to drive the AMR24 during free practice in Mexico City. Felipe is regularly at Silverstone on our simulator, contributing to the development of this car with his detailed and attentive feedback, so it will be a “It was a rewarding experience for him to hit the track in Mexico,” said Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack.
“During the session, Felipe will work on development for the team, gathering vital data to support our decision-making throughout the rest of the weekend and contributing to the set-up of the car.”
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