During the final important group test before the season begins, which will take place between from the 3rd to the 5th of March in St. Petersburg, the Kiwi will test drive one of the team’s Honda-powered Indy cars. Nick Cassidy is all set to be competing in Ganassi IndyCar after being selected to test for Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda. The short outer circle will be used by roughly two-thirds of the full-time field when he will become a part of CGR at Sebring International Raceway. The Japanese Formula 3, Super GT, and Super Formula champion will test a CGR Indy car later, the day after Marcus Armstrong tests for the company. He will be competing at the Hyderabad ePrix in India for the Envision Racing FIA Formula E squad.
Is This the First Evaluation Test in History?
No, Cassidy is not the first one to be tested. The very first one of this kind was done by Robert Shwartzman, a driver at Scuderia Ferrari Formula, when he was a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. The evaluation run was held in Sebring between four pilots and it was early in January when he was asked to be a part of it and he eventually won it.
The Test
The 2021 IndyCar Series champion for CGR, Alex Palou, was signed to a modified deal that allows for his departure following the current season. In order to give CGR enough time to consider its options, drivers like Shwartzman and Cassidy are being embraced early in the season with the expectation of a title-caliber entry in need of a top-tier driver. The managing director at CGR, Mike Hull, even expressed how happy and fortunate they are to be able to test Shwartzman before this season. He added if this was not done at this time, then the test would have been delayed until the end of this season and the same would have happened with Cassidy.