Felipe Drugovich says he is ready to jump into the Aston Martin if and when he gets the chance in the future after his pre-season run standing in for Lance Stroll.
Stroll injured his wrists in a cycling accident ahead of the new season and had to miss testing in Bahrain, with Drugovich instead putting the new Aston Martin through its paces alongside Fernando Alonso.
The Brazilian was primed to drive in the first grand prix of the year as well, but Stroll made a good enough recovery to take back the reins for that, and Drugovich has since been back on the sidelines in his reserve driver role for the team.
Reflecting on that opportunity, though, Drugovich believes that he is now as ready as he can be to jump into the Aston Martin in future, if required:
“[The experience] was really important,” he said to GIVEMESPORT.
“When you’re the reserve driver, it’s nice having that feeling, because some would have to jump in without knowing the car, but I got to know the car at the beginning of the season.
“I think that’s the best thing, just to be already familiar with the car in case I have to jump in one day.
“I learned a lot about actually developing the car, because most of the drivers get to test at the end of the season, and aren’t actually doing much for the team. If you do testing at the beginning of the season before the first race, you’re testing a lot of things and that’s really, really nice to do to try to help the team.”
The last few months have been a learning curve for Drugovich, meanwhile, with him inducted into the recently-formed Aston Martin driver programme:
“It’s been really good. I started just after Monza last year, then I’ve been following the team quite a lot. I think the only races that I didn’t go was the last two [in 2022] but I’ll be travelling around with them quite a lot this year.
“It’s been really good and it’s allowing me to see everything I want to. I’m trying to have another perspective from outside. Obviously the dream is to be racing and not looking from outside, but you have to look at the positives and looking from outside like this is quite good.”
The reigning F2 champion, Drugovich will hope he is not far away from getting a permanent F1 seat.
