Arrow McLaren 2024 Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix: Friday Report

High speed and high commitment. The team is back at the world-famous Barber Motorsports Park. 

Pato O'Ward showed promising pace during the first practice session of the weekend, nearing the top of the charts with a second place finish. Alexander Rossi followed in 22nd and Théo in 25th. 

On Saturday, the team hits the 17-turn course again for Practice 2 and qualifying.

See what the drivers and Team Principal Gavin Ward said following Friday's on-track session.

"I love driving around this place. It's a track I really enjoy and always have. It's high-commitment. We're just going to try to get the car a little bit better for tomorrow and see if we can get it done in qualifying."

"That was a challenging session, and I don't think we're quite in the window yet. We need to look at what we are doing and how we can get things back to where we were at last month's test. Not the way we wanted kick off the weekend, but we'll focus on a stronger Practice 2 and qualifying."

Théo Pourchaire, No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, said:

"It was a smooth session. What was most important for me was to get as many laps as possible to learn the track and the car in those conditions. Everything is different from Long Beach, as the track here is very smooth with very high speeds. I need to learn the downforce and the limit of the car in those high-speed corners. Overall, I am satisfied. I had quite a bit of traffic on my alternate lap, and in the end, I think we would have been further up in the standings. It is a good start, but I need to continue building confidence. It should be a good weekend, as the car is great and Pato showed we can be quite strong here."

Gavin Ward, Team Principal, Arrow McLaren, said:

"We had a mixed bag today. Pato got off to a good start here. He's got the pace, and it's a good reference for the other two cars to look at, which I think we've got a bit more to find. Alexander is not feeling really comfortable today, but I've got no doubt we've got the best people to figure that one out overnight. He sure knows how to drive an INDYCAR, so he should be alright tomorrow. This is definitely a different challenge than Long Beach for Théo, and it's a steep learning curve here to get confidence in the high speed and all that, but he's building up to it once again, and there's a bit we can do to help him get comfy. We'll look for a decent step up overnight."

Session Start Times