Felipe Drugovich may have the chance to drive an IndyCar Series machine as a part of the Chip Ganassi Racing driver qualifying test at Barber Motorsports Park.
The 2022 Formula 2 champion, Drugovich is currently a test and reserve driver for the Aston Martin Formula 1 team. This 12 months he has also competed within the European Le Mans Series, in addition to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Jack Aitken and Pipo Derani in a Cadillac V-Series.R prepared by Action Express.
The 24-year-old Brazilian’s testing will happen on the two.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course, which will probably be held on September 30, the identical day Jamie Chadwick will probably be on target in an Andretti Global IndyCar.
Chip Ganassi Racing Managing Director Mike Hull confirmed in an interview with Motorsport.com that the chance to check Drugovich was attributable to quite a lot of aspects, including a desire to make up for the chance lost last 12 months.
Felipe Drugovich, Aston Martin F1 Team
Photo: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“I think first and foremost because of his Formula 2 experience,” said Hull.
“He's got the opportunity… This car has 625 horsepower, the tires are similar, the power-to-weight ratio is similar. It's a good assessment of him as a driver. That way you don't spend a lot of time teaching him how to drive an IndyCar. He's actually been driving it for at least two years now. That helps a lot. We promised him a test a year ago and we weren't able to do it. So it's pretty much what we promised.”
Chip Ganassi Racing is reducing its IndyCar Series field from five cars to a few for the 2025 season, with six-time champion Scott Dixon and newly crowned three-time champion Alex Palou the one confirmed drivers.
Despite this, Hull have made it clear that this performance will not be a deciding consider their decision to finish their driver line-up for next season.
“There were no strings attached,” Hull said.
“Of course, nothing like that. We saw him in person at Le Mans in the Cadillac that Action Express drives, so we knew him a little bit. So those three things together probably contribute to it. Where is this going? Now he's got no legs.”
