As well as participating in FP1 sessions, Doohan has taken part in testing for the team using their 2021 and 2022-spec cars, something that he believes added to his sense of self-assuredness ahead of jumping in the A524 in Montreal.
Asked if he is ready to drive in Formula 1, the F2 graduate answered: “Very. I think that previous mileage has been very, very high in the ’21 car, and two days in the ’22 car. I felt very comfortable coming into today [for FP1 in Canada].
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“Previously coming to FP you have nerves, you feel you’re jumping up from Formula 2, so there’s a lot of emotion, whereas coming into today I felt very complete, there was no fear, there was nothing about feeling out of my comfort zone.
“I really felt that even with the test times we were going to run that I could actually hop in and have a crack and really do something good. But, in the end, we didn’t obviously get to do that and it’s a little bit unfortunate, but that is how it is.
“I’ve been able to show what I can do in those tests which are much longer, more time than an hour for the weather window!”
