Scott McLaughlin ended up on the front row for tomorrow’s Detroit Grand Prix, coming 3 tenths shy of a pole position behind championship leader Álex Palou. But the New Zealand native wasn’t too displeased with his result.
“Pretty happy with P2. I’ve had a pretty average month of May by my standards. Nice to bounce back here in Detroit. New track. Rebound with a P2 to start tomorrow. But see how we go.”
The new track in the city centre of Detroit, replacing Belle Isle, has already received some criticism by the drivers, but McLaughlin didn’t feel that way.
“We’ll be all right. With the track, there’s been a lot of noise I’ve seen in Twitter, from other drivers and stuff. At the end of the day this is a new track, new complex. I think what everyone has done to get this going, like the vibe is awesome. Belle Isle was getting old. We had to do it.
“Yeah, first-year problems. It’s always going to happen. It’s just going to get better from here. The racetrack for the drivers is a blast. We don’t even know how it races yet. Everyone is making conclusions already. They probably just need to relax and wait for tomorrow.”
The pit lane has also been a significant talking point. The unusual configuration has pit stalls on either side of the fast lane, rather than the classic layout where the pits are on either the left- or righthand side of the fast lane. The Penske-driver, however, does not see it as a big issue.
“I have no idea at the moment. We’ve rolled out after a couple red flags together. At the end of the day there’s a blend line. Gets to the point that dash line at the front, if you’re not in front of the car that’s behind you or beside you, you should get out of it. If there’s any gentlemen in this field, which I highly doubt, you can probably back off and let the other guy in front of you be okay.
“But I think, yeah, it’s always going to be self-control, self-discipline. Like I said, they’ve done a very good job. It’s a very good pit lane, it’s just tight, it’s different. Who knows till the race.”
Being a street track the walls are always close and the surface is uneven at best, but McLaughlin didn’t have too much trouble getting used to it.
“I have Google maps in my steering wheel. No, you just follow the walls. You don’t hit the walls, you just follow them.
“I feel like the first practice session, we did a lot of simulator stuff beforehand, so I already had the numbers and stuff down pat. I think now it’s knowing where the bumps are. There’s bumps on the track you haven’t felt before, you won’t feel till the race, they will feel different with old tires and fuel.
“Tomorrow is about attrition. It’s about making no mistakes, good pit stops and hopefully a fast car.”
Looking forward to the race, the Kiwi has taken a few notes from the Indy NXT race in the afternoon, and he sees some opportunities for getting past Palou.
“I watched it. I watched all of it actually. It was carnage. At the same time what’s exciting for me is if you got a fast car, you can make moves. You can come through.”
He added: “It’s going to be all that tyre life, tire life is going to be key. One thing that’s good about this track, it’s a lot of stop-start corners. If you get better runs than others, use the push to pass, I think it’s going to race similar to Nashville.
“Everyone says we crash a lot in Nashville. I think it’s going to race very well. It’s just going to be up to us with the etiquette of the drivers to leave it up to us and figure it out along the way.
“I think it’s going to race very similar to Nashville. Looking at it, there’s going to be a lot of passes, I think opportunities. Hopefully I only have to make one.”
