Conor Daly takes a hilarious dig at modern F1: "It wasn't cool to have 48 reserve drivers"

IndyCar star Conor Daly was questioned about his junior career and his Formula 1 dream. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver, while explaining the European open-wheel racing series scene, decided to take a sly dig at modern F1 as he detailed his reserve driver role for Force India (now Aston Martin).

The current F1 roster features multiple reserve and test drivers who are usually former F1 drivers or junior drivers who've moved up the Formula racing ladder. Daly himself rose up the Formula ladder, having raced in F3 and F2 before joining as a reserve driver

Conor Daly came out and took a dig at the fact that teams have several reserve drivers, as the JHR star detailed that it wasn't the same a decade ago.

Conor Daly explained how he signed with Force India in the early 2010s as a reserve driver before it became a 'cool' thing. The 33-year-old suggested that it was as close as he got to his F1 dream. Fan Amp’s Instagram has a video of Daly talking about the same.

“We all tried to go to Formula 1, at least, most of us did at some point. I was a F1 reserve driver with Force India before it was cool to be a reserve driver. We didn't have suits. We were hidden under the radar," said Conor Daly.

"I had a contract with them. I was at the factory every day doing simulator work. But it wasn't like cool to have 48 reserve drivers yet with a bunch of cool suits and helmets and stuff like that. But it was a really cool experience,” he added.

Alpine has four test & reserve drivers, namely Franco Colapinto, Rio Hirakawa, Paul Aron, and Kush Maini. Ferrari and Aston Martin have a couple of reserve drivers each. Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward is the only driver on the IndyCar grid at the moment who also fulfills the role of the reserve driver for an F1 team, along with his American open-wheel racing series duties.

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“Felt good”: Conor Daly reflects on Indy 500 Open Test Day 2

Conor Daly drives during the INDYCAR Open Testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway- Source: Getty

The Indy 500 test took place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from April 23 to April 24. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver took to X(formerly Twitter) to reflect on the final day of testing around the 2.5-mile oval in the new hybrid IndyCar.

Conor Daly finished P4 in the final session of the test and explained the difficulties of following the cars on track. Daly tweeted:

“Pretty solid afternoon session for us. P4. We obviously know never to read too much into testing and practice here but felt good getting a lot accomplished as a team @juncoshollinger. Tough out there in traffic! Can’t wait for May @TeamChevy #indy500”

Daly finished the first session on April 24, the boost session, when the qualifying laps were simulated, in P21.