After he won the Indianapolis 500 last weekend, Marcus Ericsson went on a whirlwind of interviews and appearances that took nearly all of his time this past week.
After finishing his post-race interviews that lasted multiple hours, Ericsson went to the Indy 500 victory banquet on Monday night, traveled to New York on Tuesday, and answered untold numbers of questions from reporters around the world.
When most people would have been exhausted from the nearly endless obligations, he insisted on making time for the simulator on Wednesday night.
Ericsson spent nearly three hours late at night in the Honda simulator preparing for this weekend’s Detroit Grand Prix.
“Sleep has been limited for sure,” said Ericsson describing his week to Motorsport Week. “The first couple nights it was only a couple hours a night, because it was so full on. But got eight hours in last night, so that feels good today.
“I did squeeze in a simulator session. The team was like ‘You don’t have to do it because we know how busy you are.’ I was pushing really hard to try to get them to fit it in.
“Honda was nice enough to open the sim Wednesday night. I came in at 7:00 PM and I drove a couple hours, then got out at 10:00 PM. That was really good because I really felt that I wanted to get back in the racing state of mind.
“But then it was a 5:30 wakeup call Thursday morning to drive up here [to Detroit], then full media day here. It’s been crazy.”
The time in the simulator appears to have worked well, as Ericsson finished the opening practice session in the fifth position despite having a much more draining week than any of his competitors.
The Swede will look to carry his momentum through this weekend, and repeat victory at the track where he scored his first IndyCar win last season.
