Formula 2 exile Armstrong is to drive the #11 Ganassi-Honda in all 12 road and street course IndyCar rounds, while two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato was set to drive the five ovals, but right now is guaranteed only the PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway and the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500.
Simmons said he’s already been impressed by Armstrong who first tested for the team at Thermal Club for two days, where he was third fastest in the final session, and then was fourth fastest of nine cars in a final pre-season test at Sebring. Since then, the 22-year-old New Zealander has qualified 13th and finished 11th on his debut at St. Petersburg, and last week he was sixth of 16 cars in testing at Barber Motorsports Park. He finished the day just 0.2s slower than 2021 champion Alex Palou and ahead of his other two teammates, Marcus Ericsson and Scott Dixon.
Simmons told Motorsport.com: “Marcus was only 13 seconds away from transferring to Q2 in qualifying at St. Pete, and by that I mean after the red flag [for Simon Pagenaud sliding into a tire wall and stalling], a lot of drivers got a chance for a final flyer. Unfortunately, because it was a quick red, when Marcus came in there wasn’t enough time for him to get another lap’s worth of fuel in and get out again.
“But he’s been super-impressive – really calm, and quick every time he’s been in the car. I think we’ll see a lot more from him as the season continues.
“Driving style-wise, I would say he’s more like Ericsson than Dixon, but I wouldn’t say we’ve seen any particular weaknesses in his driving. To be performing where he is, considering the limited testing we have these days and the limited amount of times he’s been in our car, has been pretty impressive to us.”
Eric Cowdin is race engineer for the #11 car, so is working with Armstrong and Sato just a couple of seasons after he ran the #48 CGR entry for brief NASCAR convert Jimmie Johnson, and Tony Kanaan, with whom he had won the IndyCar title in 2004 with Andretti Autosport and the 2013 Indy 500, with KV Racing.
“Yeah, Eric’s very calm and very experienced,” said Simmons, “and he’s performed at a high level with quite a few drivers over the years. He’s pretty unshakeable and very focused. He’s the right guy to get the most out of a rookie like Marcus and a veteran like Takuma.”
Simmons said he was looking forward to working with Sato and believes the 46-year-old with six IndyCar wins to his name will be a valuable asset to the team.
“Takuma is another guy who’s going to have to hit the ground running,” Simmons remarked. “He’s had a couple of seat fittings, and he was in St. Pete getting embedded in the team, but we haven’t had him on the simulator
“So he’s not going to have a lot of time to get used to our setups and learn how our cars handle on ovals. But he’s obviously a very a talented guy who’s run well at Indy and Texas – all the ovals in fact – so we expect good things from him.
“We’ve already seen some things that Takuma looks at a little differently than we do and it’s always good to get that other opinion and perspective. When you’re looking for such small pieces of time on ovals, that can make a big difference in terms of grid positions and finishing positions.
“I’ll be very surprised if our main rivals at Indy haven’t made some good progress there over the winter, so an experienced and talented guy like Takuma can help to bring in some fresh ideas.”
