Drugovic: Interesting to see how AMR23 has changed

At Monza, Felipe Drugovic will replace Lance Stroll in the first practice session behind the wheel of the AMR23 car, and we’ve talked about it. On the eve of the Italian leg of the season, the Aston Martin reserve racer and test driver spoke to his team’s press office.

Q: How do you prepare to take your seat in the cockpit of the AMR23 at Monza?
Felipe Drugovich: It’s great to get behind the wheel of a car again this weekend, on the circuit where I secured my Formula 2 title last year. A few months later I had my first training with Aston Martin in Abu-Dabi, and it was an unforgettable experience.

Driving a Formula 1 car requires a different level of physical and mental preparation, and the feeling behind the wheel is simply incomparable, so I am patiently waiting to repeat this experience again in Monza.

Friday’s first practice is a chance to get a better feel for the AMR23. I’m curious how much the car has changed since the pre-season test I did at the beginning of the year.

Q: What can you expect during practice on the first day of the Italian race weekend?
Felipe Drugovich: This weekend Pirelli will again take an alternative approach to tire distribution. During qualifying on Saturday everyone will use rubber from all three compounds: Hard, Medium and Soft, which means we will have fewer sets of tires in practice.

Most likely I will have to ride for a long set, but still this is a good opportunity to learn a lot.

Question: What tasks will you be doing on Friday?
Felipe Drugovich: I will try to collect as much useful information as possible, provide the team with valuable data and help them decide on the basic settings of the car before Lance gets back behind the wheel for the second practice session. These are my main duties.

Q: What can be said about the main difficulties of the Monza circuit?
Felipe Drugovich: Monza is a very fast circuit and all teams have set their cars to low downforce to reduce drag and be as fast as possible on the straights. It will be my first time flying the car in this configuration, so it will be a new experience for me, because before that I always had to deal with settings designed for high pressure.

I am very curious how the car will behave with minimal wing angles as it slides more on the track, and the focus will be on correct corner exits and speed on the straights.

The rest of the time I look at Lance and Fernando’s work and try to learn as much as I can from them.

Q: How are you going to work with them this weekend?
Felipe Drugovich: I always have something to learn from my teammates. I will analyze their telemetry, study how they perform, how they manage to exploit the full potential of the AMR23, and I will compare all this with my work in the first training.

Direct comparisons are of course difficult to make, since I will not be driving on the track with them at the same time and the surface condition will already change. But the first practice on Friday this weekend is so important to me because it allows me to set the right benchmark for myself and increase my level of preparation.