Alfa Romeo's Pourchaire revels in "best hour of my life"

Sauber Academy driver Théo Pourchaire has thanked Alfa Romeo for the "best hour of my life" after completing the team's second required rookie FP1 session at the United States Grand Prix.

The Frenchman, second in the F2 standings this year, took over Valtteri Bottas' car for the first hour of running at the Circuit of the Americas, finishing 18th fastest as he got to grips with F1 machinery.

Pourchaire, the youngest driver in attendance at the age of only 19, will have only the one appearance this year after Alfa Romeo successfully contested that Zhou Guanyu completed the first rookie run on debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Reacting to his first outing on an F1 weekend, the ART F2 driver said: “It’s been an amazing experience, the best hour of my life and I am so grateful to the team for the trust they’ve put in me.

"Discovering this track was incredible and the car is just something special: I have been through lots of emotions and I’m just so happy right now.

"My main target was to help the team and I was pleased to be able to do so: we had a good session, did quite a few laps and everyone was satisfied, so it’s a good start of the weekend.

"I tried to push a bit at the end, but my focus was mostly on understanding everything about the car, the steering wheel and so on.

"I would like to thank Alfa Romeo for this opportunity: it’s been a very intense experience, I enjoyed every minute of it and tried to learn as much as I could from the car and the team around me.”

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

F1 Practice Today: Japanese Grand Prix 2026 start times, schedule, TV channel and FREE live stream

• Just now

How Adrian Newey and Christian Horner can still work together in F1

• 41 minutes ago

Max Verstappen ban on British journalist angers media as 'walk out' suggestion raised

• 1 hour ago

F1 News Today: Max Verstappen kicks out journalist as brutal Aston Martin timeline revealed

• 1 hour ago

F1 2026 Japanese Grand Prix weather forecast - latest from Suzuka

• 2 hours ago

F1 journalist kicked out by Max Verstappen breaks silence over Japanese Grand Prix storm

• 2 hours ago