Reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves is taking it easy in the early practice sessions for this year’s race, after having wrecked his car in testing just four weeks ago.
The caution is not because of any nerves on the veteran’s part, but rather in an effort to make extra sure he doesn’t crash the coveted car again before race day comes around.
In April’s test, Castroneves was the first of three drivers to lose control on the warm-up lane, and caused a large amount of damage to his coveted Indy 500 chassis.
He was seen lamenting his damaged car immediately after he climbed out, in disbelief at the damage he had caused to the most valued car in the Meyer Shank Racing shop.
A lot of work has been done to the track since then to mitigate the slick and inconsistent conditions on the warm-up lane, but the popular Brazilian driver has yet to even dare to test it out again in practice.
“I haven’t even tried,” said Castroneves when asked if it felt different when he pushed exiting the pits. “I’m really taking it super, super easy.
“I don’t even want to. Hopefully more towards the end of the week, so that I can start putting some practice in.
“The guys just did an amazing job building up the car, especially after what happened a few weeks ago. Everybody says ‘Is the car okay?’ The car is perfect.
“We know we have a plan, got to continue to focus on that. You can’t count from one to ten without getting through two, three, four… You gotta go through the whole process. Practice all the things you want to try to make it even better so that we can drive for five.”
Castroneves was cautious out on the track as well, logging just the 30th fastest time in Tuesday’s opening practice session.
A reason that he is able to take extra time to slowly build up to the limit is the sheer amount of practice time set aside for the Indy 500.
There are over 29 hours of practice time scheduled over the next ten days, although any adverse weather that rolls through the area could bring that number down a bit.
Castroneves currently holds the joint record with four Indianapolis 500 wins, and will attempt to earn a fifth victory to hold the record alone on Sunday, May 29.
