Palou, debut with a note in F1 practice and Sainz leads

He was faced with one of the defining moments of his life. Unforgettable. He tried to hide his nervousness with his usual smile inside the box, before riding on 2022 F1 McLarenwhere he debuted about F1 free this Friday, driving for the historic team of waking up in the first training sessions GP of the United States. An hour later, he returned to the garage with the car intact, following the team’s program and, taking off his helmet, gave his best answer as to how it all happened: he could not hide a big smile that spoke for Himself. He accomplished with record a difficult ballot in a session where Carlos Sainz started the weekend in the lead with a 0″224 lead Verstappen. Charles and Max They will be favorites for pole position this Saturday, as Leclerc and Pérez have accumulated 5 penalty positions on the grid for changing combustion engines.

Alex, just one set of wheels.

Alex He finished 17th, but this time more than ever, the result should not be representative, because the Catalan has a handicap that the others do not: McLaren I’ll just let him roll with a set of wheels for that Ricciardo rode the same car in FP2 with another set of tires for the weekend. Palou entered the single-seater with the sole aim of accumulating kilometers of experience and, above all, collecting important data for this weekend with the medium tyre. It was clear then that when the other riders assembled a second new set late in the session, their times would not be comparable.

Despite this, Palou was able to beat three of the 4 non-title drivers he will be competing with in this FP1, Antonio Giovinazzi (20th in Magnussen’s Haas), Logan Sargeant (19th in Latifi’s Williams) and Theo Pourchaire (18th in Bottas’ Alfa Romeo). Among the newbies, he was the only one to be surpassed Shwartzman with a ferrari better and with more running in an F1, but also, he did it riding on two sets of soft tires, for a while. Despite this, Robert could only finish 16th, one place ahead of Alex.

Better than other non-starters

Today’s comparison between regular drivers and non-drivers speaks for itself about Alex’s work. Between Sainz (1st) and Shwartzman (16th) there are two seconds. Almost the same between Albon and Sargeant, Zhoy or Pourchaire. Norris is also 2 seconds behind teammate Lando Norris. But with the important difference that Palou only used one set of tires. All the other young drivers could improve their times more than the Spaniards.

McLaren praises Palou’s work

“Alex is doing great so far. I’m happy with how he came in. The goal is not to present ourselves with maximum performance laps, but to collect as much data as possible for the race weekend and test different set-up configurations.”said the McLaren Team Principal, Andreas Seidl, about what Palou was doing mid-session. “He seems confident in the car, which is great.”, he added. Andreas did not make a mistake. Instead of suffering from not failing in a different car than the one he drove in the tests he did in Barcelona and Austria, a car that was more complicated to drive, Alex focused on enjoying himself.

Alex is used to performing under pressure. In those moments it grows. He already showed it in his IndyCar test, which opened the doors of the American category for him. also in his first Indianapolis 500, wowing everyone. And also won the IndyCar title in his first season with a winning team in the American series. Alex always takes risks and wins because he enjoys doing what he does. It was seen in his smile, as well as in the radio he launched into the team as he debuted: “This car is wild!” He said from the passenger compartment, enjoying himself like an elf.

Giovinazzi, mistake

Exactly, if Alex Palou can’t afford something, it’s a mistake or an accident that ruined McLaren. It would cause great damage to his morale and even his future. The one from Sant Antoni de Vilamajor did not disappoint, but someone with more experience was: Antonio Giovinazzi.

The Italian is playing with Mick Schumacher for a place at Haas for 2023. Gene Haas, team owner, said a few days ago that Mick is costing them a lot of money for the many cars he has destroyed today year and that he already has. continue with the team in 2023. He cannot afford any more failures. However, it was Antonio Giovinazzi who ended up paving the way for him with his performance in Free Practice 1. It only took him 8 minutes to crash his car into the wall when he lost control of the car in the Austin laps with cold rubber . That could burn out all his options to be at Haas in 2023 and give Mick a break.