Sahara Force India
James Calado says that his first run in a Formula 1 car during a Grand Prix weekend was ‘amazing’.
Calado, currently fifth in this season’s GP2 championship, joined Force India as their reserve driver earlier in the week.
Calado drove for the team at the young driver test in July but made his practice debut during the opening 90 minute session in Monza.
The British driver completed 24 laps of the circuit, with a best time of 1:27.041 putting him in seventeenth place.
“Amazing – that’s the only word I can use to describe the day,” he said.
“It took a while to get used to the car again, but once I was familiar with everything I was able to drive consistently and set some reasonable lap times. The balance felt good and everything ran smoothly during the session.”
“I learned a lot and hopefully got some good data for the team. I want to say a big ‘thank you’ to Force India for the opportunity and I’m already looking forward to getting back in the car later in the year.”
Calado returned to his usual GP2 car for the remainder of the day, qualifying his ART car in eighth place for Saturday’s feature race.
