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Doohan substituted for Pierre Gasly in the 60-minute session in Silverstone, chalking up a total of 22 laps to end proceedings with the 17th best time.
It was the second rookie session of the season for the 21-year-old who was last in the A524 in Canada.
However, there he had just two laps in the car in wet conditions making Friday’s Silverstone outing the first real taste Doohan has had of the 2024-spec machine.
“It was a little better than just getting an out- and an in-[lap] so happy with that,” Doohan told Speedcafe of the outing.
“It was a great session. It was tricky, to be honest.
“On my side, struggling on a few areas that we were trying, which didn’t make it easy; it’s a little bit of picking my place on track.
“It seemed like everyone was a bit everywhere on some laps.
“Also, with the test item we were trying was not helping, but it was helping us from an engineering side, and we were able to benefit from a lot of feedback and a lot of data collected, which really helped to confirm, consolidate our choice and our direction that we are going in for the rest of the weekend.”
Alongside his duties at the track, Doohan has been kept busy this year performing simulator duties for the operation.
That has seen him spend countless hours at the wheel of a virtual A524 before finally getting an opportunity to sample it in the real world on Friday.
“There was definitely similar feelings,” Doohan described of the sim versus real world experience.
“To be honest, because of what I was trying, it was actually quite different and I wasn’t able to get a complete back-to-back on what I’m testing in the sim to how it was on track.
“I think it was a little bit mild, maybe a bit more exaggerated the issues, but it’s all good things going forward.
“And it’s also good to know that we had a strong car in 2022, let’s say, and I was in that two days ago,” he added.
“So to know then, get the feedback how the ’24 car relates to that, it’s important that we try and take some good things that we have done and try and implement them into this car.”
Doohan was in action at Paul Ricard on Wednesday, performing half a day in an A522.
Mick Schumacher was also present, the German racing for Alpine in the World Endurance Championship but also a contender for an F1 return at Enstone next season.
As for Friday’s running, Doohan’s effort can’t be compared with Esteban Ocon as the squad ran a split strategy approach to wing levels.
“We were on split aero levels between the two cars and then a test item on the rear,” the Australian said of his programme.
“Definitely it didn’t add up, didn’t end up being very comfortable to drive and exactly perfect.
“But it was good that we could actually confirm that, and solidify that, so we know that we’re on the correct direction with Esteban [Ocon].”
