During last season’s Italian Grand Prix, Formula 1 announced that teams would have to use rookie drivers in some of the 2022 free practice sessions, although they could choose the dates on which they would go out on track.
For this reason, the teams on the grid are preparing to offer young people a unique opportunity and show that they deserve a seat in the Great Circus, although most likely the only thing we will see are programs already stipulated to continue developing the single-seaters and not take risks. of unnecessary accidents.
With the poor performance of Daniel Ricciardo in the past year and at the beginning of the present, the rumors about a possible substitution continue to be on the lips of the entire paddock, even more so when the head of McLaren, Zak Brown , assured that his partner, Lando Norris, “is the best in Formula 1”.
The options on a hypothetical replacement have been changing, going through Pierre Gasly to Fernando Alonso himself, although they were only conjectures created among the general imagination that follows the highest category.
What does seem realistic is that Colton Herta , current Andretti Autosport driver in IndyCar and reserve for the Woking team, ends up landing in the Great Circus. The 22-year-old has claimed six wins in the American class, and is running as the favorite to take a seat in this mandatory practice session for the teams.
The English team’s reserve was present at the Miami Grand Prix, and McLaren boss Andreas Seidl was asked what he was doing there: “From Thursday he was integrated in a similar way to what we did with Pato [O’Ward ] last year in Abu Dhabi, doing the track walk with Lando [Norris] and his engineers.”
“He also went to some of the meetings, listening to the radio during the sessions, to be as prepared as possible when he returns home to make the seat, be in the simulator and then do the first runs in the TPC (Test with Previous Cars – TPC in English),” said the German.
“Everything is scheduled. I don’t have specific dates in mind, but it will be in the next two or three months,” he added. “That’s why we also have this program, that’s why we did it with Pato and now with Colton.”
At a certain moment, McLaren will have to put one of the two in his car: “In the end, we have to race twice this year in free practice with a rookie, and, obviously, whoever does it has to be fully prepared” .
“In the end you have to look at the components of each car,” said Seidl . “It’s still open, it depends on how the season goes, it depends on when, for example, updates are done, which may be accompanied by other parameters, like changes to the power unit or gearbox, etc.
“There are a lot of different things that have to be taken into account when making a decision on which session to use,” the McLaren boss said.
