Matt Brabham believes he is ready for a fulltime Verizon IndyCar Series drive after completing his second official test session with Andretti Autosport at Sonoma.
The 21-year-old took part in the test under the Mazda Road to Indy ‘Rookie’ program where young drivers from the IndyCar ladder system are able to take part in a test day alongside regular Series drivers - who cannot complete more than 50% of the day’s running.
In July, Brabham added to his IndyCar experience at Iowa Speedway in the leadup to the race there, which Andretti Autosport driver - Ryan Hunter-Reay - subsequently went on to win.
"Had an awesome day, driving an IndyCar around Sonoma was a lot more physically demanding than when I last drove at Iowa. You really had to muscle the car a lot more, but it was an incredible experience and so much more fun than anything else that I have driven"
"As a team we worked our way through the program which I was scheduled to do, so they were happy. And it was good to be able to ask Marco and Justin questions during the day, that was a big help."
Brabham believes Sonoma enabled him to really become comfortable with the IndyCar performance. His previous experience included the Iowa session, two seater passenger rides at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a commercial filming day.
"Speed wise it was difficult to really judge as the regular drivers were on different compound tires to the MRTI guys and there was no official timing. But it appears unofficially that Piquet and myself were the fastest rookie drivers, and we did almost identical times.
"I want to race one so bad now, and after today I am ready if given the opportunity."
The Sonoma test saw a majority of the Verizon IndyCar Series teams take Andretti’s lead in placing young drivers in their cars ahead of the season finale in Wine Country on August 30. Andretti Autosport’s Marco Andretti sits 87 points off the Championship lead and with a total of 156 points up for winning the remaining two races and scoring all bonus points - is still in with a Title shot.
Brabham has been nothing if versatile over the last 12 months, having driven two iterations of the Indy Lights Series cars, an FIA Formula E electric car for Andretti Autosport, a Stadium Super Truck, an asphalt Late Model and of course the Verizon IndyCar Series machine.
