Prema Racing's IndyCar debut at St. Petersburg showed promising potential, with rookie Robert Shwartzman qualifying 18th in the No. 83 Chevy, outperforming both Ed Carpenter Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing teams.

This achievement is particularly notable considering Shwartzman's limited track experience, having completed only 20 laps on Friday and 10 laps on Saturday morning due to radio issues. Despite being the least experienced driver in the field, the former Ferrari F1 test driver managed to finish ahead of several seasoned veterans, including Santino Ferrucci, Graham Rahal, and Alexander Rossi.

"Overall I don't think it was a bad qualifying because of all the issues we had in free practice," Shwartzman explained. "The tires are something new, something different to what I am used to, so it is really something to learn because the whole group level is extremely different."

His teammate Callum Ilott will start from 27th position after struggling with tire management during the qualifying session. "It was not a solid qualifying," Ilott admitted. "We need to look into it quite a bit. We just couldn't get the tires to work and couldn't put anything together. We can make some changes for tomorrow and at least we can only go forward."

The performance demonstrates Prema Racing's potential in IndyCar, particularly through Shwartzman's ability to adapt quickly to the new racing format and challenging conditions.

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