Theo Pourchaire faces a new challenge following his IndyCar debut — going from the streets of Long Beach to the road course at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.
The 20-year old Frenchman, who is the reigning Formula 2
champion, gets his second turn racing for injured Arrow McLaren driver David
Malukas on Sunday. He goes to a different side of the country and a much
different course.
“For me, it was something new,” Pourchaire said this week
after McLaren said he would race Barber. “It was not easy to learn, but in the
end I think I adapted pretty quickly to this championship, to this car, to the
team. I still have a lot of things to learn, like for example, this weekend
it’s going to be a new race track.
“I will almost start from zero. I have a little bit more
experience now, so I feel a bit more confident.”
Pourchaire had never before driven an Indy car until last
weekend’s first practice session. He qualified 22nd but finished 11th and was
IndyCar’s “biggest mover” at Long Beach, “which is incredible for my first
IndyCar race.”
His introduction to the American open-wheel series came with
no track time leading up to last Friday’s first practice at Long Beach. He’d
been in Indianapolis for a couple of weeks before for a seat-fitting and to get
acclimated with the team, and spent one day in the Chevrolet simulator in North
Carolina.
Pourchaire is still adapting to aspects of IndyCar like the
longer length of the races and different fuel strategies. He expects to need a
few laps on the 17-turn, 2.3-mile Barber track to get up to a competitive speed
starting with Friday’s first practice session.
“I learned a lot of things” at Long Beach, he said. “How the
car behaves on the race track like Long Beach was important for me to discover.
But it will be even more important to rediscover the car, I think, in Barber,
because the track is completely different.”
GHIOTTO’S DEBUT
Current European Le Mans Series driver Luca Ghiotto will
pilot the No. 51 entry for Dale Coyne Racing at Barber and the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway road course. The Italian won seven times in Formula 2 and moved
to sportscar racing in 2020. He recently served as test and simulator driver
for the Nissan Formula E team in 2022-23.
Ghiotto met up with the team in Chicago earlier this week.
“I’ve spent the majority of my career overseas but was
always intrigued and wanting to try IndyCar,” he said. “It will be my first
time driving this car and my first time at this track, so there’s a steep
learning curve and challenge ahead of me but I am very much looking forward to
it.” AP