The Hitech Grand Prix teammates currently lie only 10th and 12th in the 2022 championship but Armstrong has four F2 wins to his name, and Vips has three. Armstrong has shown some interest in switching to IndyCar for two years, while last year Vips’ management was approached by a well-established team that then elected to retain its current line-up. Vips, too, wanted to give F2 one more year.
Yet today Vips will pilot a Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda around the 1.7-mile short course at Sebring, while Armstrong will take the wheel of a Dale Coyne Racing-Honda.
These should be seen as the most significant try-outs of the five drivers being evaluated today, since Vips could be a potential replacement for Jack Harvey, who suffered a dire year at RLL relative to teammates Graham Rahal and Christian Lundgaard. Meanwhile, Dale Coyne is eager to expand his team to three cars for 2023, and Armstrong is a prime candidate along with 2022 Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist.
Jake Dennis, an Avalanche Andretti Formula E driver who finished third in the 2020-’21 FE championship, will pilot an Andretti Autosport-Honda.
In a Meyer Shank Racing-Honda will be Tom Blomqvist, who last week helped MSR’s Acura ARX-05 to take victory at Petit Le Mans and thereby clinch victory in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Although the 28-year-old Swedish-British-New Zealander found his most recent success in sportscars – he finished runner-up in last year’s LMP2 category at Le Mans and in the WEC overall – his roots are open-wheel, and in 2014 he was second in the Formula 3 European championsip.
Also in action today will be Agustin Canapino driving a Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet in preparation for his demonstration runs in the car in his native Argentina, as reported last week.
Dale Coyne Racing will remain at Sebring for an extra day in order to test 2022 Indy Lights driver Danial Frost, who raced for HMD Motorsports w/Dale Coyne Racing last season and will do so again in 2023.
Additional reporting by Steve Wittich, Trackside Online
