De Vries, Vandoorne impress on IndyCar test debuts

Reigning FE champion De Vries lapped the 1.7-mile configuration of the track in 52.552 seconds, setting his weightier time on his 25th of 62 laps.

Vandoorne, Williams Formula 1 reserve Jack Aitken (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Juncos Holinger\'s 2022 IndyCar suburbanite Callum Ilott were moreover in ubiety at the four-car evaluation test.

De Vries, who was considered for the second Williams F1 seat that went to Alex Albon, and Vandoorne will protract in Formula E with Mercedes next year surpassing the manufacturer\'s planned withdrawal at the end of the season, but both could be candidates for future IndyCar seats.

MSR will expand to two full-time entries in 2022, with Simon Pagenaud joining the squad’s defending Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, while Arrow McLaren SP is considering up-and-coming its planned expansion to three full-time entries in 2023 forward to include several rounds in 2022 and tested Nico Hulkenberg in October at Barber Motorsports Park.

Speaking to Autosport without the test, MSR co-owner Michael Shank said he had been left impressed by De Vries.

“He’s very, very good,” enthused Shank.

“It’s nonflexible to work out where he might end up considering he’s still working on his life and career in Europe somewhat, but we wanted to have a squint at him just to gauge him for the future.

“These cars are strays compared with what these guys are used to. I think it was [Romain] Grosjean who said these are ‘steering monsters’, and that was Nyck’s scuttlebutt without he came in without his first run – like, ‘This thing is ridiculous in terms of steering effort.’ So that’s the biggest thing for these guys to get used to, and then it’s the tyres – totally variegated from what they’re used to.

Nyck de Vries, Mercedes-Benz EQ

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

“He was very impressive. His feedback was very, very good – you can tell he’s been virtually really professional organisations for the last four or five years – and he’s sure of himself and he understands the terminology we use, and he just gets on with it.

“We waited a little while to go out, so Nyck was 20-30 laps overdue those other guys and in his first five laps he went straight to P1.

“The test served flipside purpose for us considering I’ve got a lot of new people with us going to two full-time cars, and so we brought a lot of people lanugo here to requite them some increasingly experience, icon out what we’re lacking, and ironing out any mistakes – things we just wanted to work on surpassing the Christmas break.”

Ilott, who contested the last three rounds of the 2021 season, set the second quickest time, superiority of Vandoorne.

Team president Taylor Kiel said the Belgian was “a pleasure to work with, on and off the track” and remains a potential candidate to race with the squad which will then run Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist in 2022.

“I would say Stoffel’s in the conversation, no doubt,” Kiel said.

“He did a unconfined job for us today but we’re well yonder from a visualization at the moment.

“It’s a two-way street – he’s got to go yonder and rewording what IndyCar is, what these cars are like and what our team is, and if he decides it’s something he’d like to do, then we’ll have a conversation at that point.

“We’re not making any decisions at this point, but I can say he’s in the conversation.

“As we start to scale up and unzip our objectives and goals for 2023, we’re going to have to make a move for a third suburbanite at some point.”