F1 rising star eyeing Aston Martin opportunity after Lance Stroll close call

20 May 2023 , 11:39

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Formula 2 champion is a reserve for Aston Martin this year (Image: Getty Images)

Felipe Drugovich is keen for a chance to get behind the wheel of an Aston Martin after coming within a whisker of making his Formula 1 debut.

The Brazilian won the Formula 2 title last year but was unable to land a race seat this season. So he signed with Aston Martin as the first member of the team's newly-established driver academy and is one of two reserve drivers alongside Formula E champion Stoffel Vandoorne.

For a while, it looked as though his debut would come sooner than expected. A pre-season cycling accident pitted Lance Stroll in a race against time to be fit for the first race of the season in Bahrain.

With Vandoorne on FE duty, Drugovich was the man on call. When Stroll was ruled out of pre-season testing, it was the Brazilian who got behind the wheel of the AMR23 along with Fernando Alonso and, for a while, it looked likely he would be racing in Bahrain.

But Stroll made remarkable progress in his rehabilitation and, despite breaking both wrists a couple of weeks earlier, was in the cockpit for that first race weekend. And the Canadian produced an excellent performance to finish sixth despite driving through the pain.

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Having come so close to racing in F1 for the first time, Drugovich reels he is more than ready for his chance. "When you're the reserve driver, it's nice having that feeling, because some would have to jump in without knowing the car, but I got to know the car at the beginning of the season," he told GiveMeSport.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have been scoring strongly for Aston Martin this year (Getty Images)

"I think that's the best thing, just to be already familiar with the car in case I have to jump in one day. I learned a lot about actually developing the car, because most of the drivers get to test at the end of the season, and aren't actually doing much for the team. If you do testing at the beginning of the season before the first race, you're testing a lot of things and that's really, really nice to do to try to help the team."

Speaking about being part of Aston Martin's fledgling youth setup, he added: "It's been really good. I started just after Monza last year, then I've been following the team quite a lot. I think the only races that I didn't go was the last two [in 2022] but I'll be travelling around with them quite a lot this year.

"It's been really good and it's allowing me to see everything I want to. I'm trying to have another perspective from outside. Obviously, the dream is to be racing and not looking from outside, but you have to look at the positives and looking from outside like this is quite good."

Daniel Moxon