Robert Shwartzman stated that his FP1 outing at the Circuit of The Americas was “awesome and hard”.
Shwartzman was one of the four drivers who made their debut FP1 appearances at COTA on Friday. He drove Charles Leclerc’s F1-75 car and finished the session in 16th place.
“It was awesome and hard, obviously I haven’t driven a car in a while and this year most of my work was on the sim,” Shwartzman said.
“Your body forgets all the feelings [on a sim] of driving the real car, so getting the real bumps, the G-forces was something very new.
“The track was challenging, bumpy, and windy, which took some getting used to.
“The only target for me mainly was to have the progression, to go step by step, not do any mistakes, and do what Ferrari asked me, which we did.”
He added: “Unfortunately the last lap where it could be even more better, I had to abort.
“But every lap was nearly like half a second faster, so I was getting better and better.
“I feel like if I had another like few laps or even like 10 laps, I could get very close to the guys in front.
“It’s just generally good experience. Unfortunately, it was very short. I only had six push-ups, but still every lap counts, and it’s very important for me to get the experience.”
