Defending Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg presented by RP Funding race winner Pato O’Ward in the No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet says they still have work to do despite finishing fifth in practice 1 on Friday.
“First session of 2025, and I would say that we’ve got some work to do. But I’m confident in the men and women that we can make those changes and see how we stack up in Practice 2, and then get ready for Qualifying.”
Nolan Siegel in the No.6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was 15th having completed 26 laps.
Overall, I think it was a positive start and our pace on new Firestone Alternate tires was pretty strong. We know what we need to work on. We have a lot of understeer that we’ll need to sort out but it’s comfortable. It’s my first time racing in St. Pete in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, and this is one of my favorite tracks and I’m very excited for the weekend. Off to a strong and positive start and I think we’ll get better from here and be in good shape for Qualifying.”
In his first practice session with the team, Christian Lundgaard in the No.7 VELO Chevrolet was 16th fastest and speaking following the action he said:
For our first go, I think we’re okay. We’re obviously building up to it. We don’t really know what the track condition is compared to last year since St. Pete was a bit under water last fall. I think we’ve identified a few things that we were concerned about leaving Sebring. Some of them translated, some of them didn’t. We still have some work to do, but overall it was a good first run. I’m looking forward to hearing what the others have to say in terms of where we are from an overall balance and overall performance perspective. It’s good to get running.”