Prema boss Rene Rosin reckons his team can surprise IndyCar's more established outfits on road courses as it continues to prepare for its first season in the series.
The Italian squad has recently completed its first test at The Thermal Club in California, joining Andretti and Dale Coyne Racing newcomer Jacob Abel for a six-car test - where it took the third and fourth fastest times - and both drivers were well within a quarter of a second of Marcus Ericsson's fastest time.
Rookie Robert Shwartzman was third in the order, 0.175s shy of Ericsson's effort, while Callum Ilott was a further 0.075s behind in Prema's first real test with IndyCar machinery, having spent the past year building up its facilities at its Fishers, Indiana base.
Rosin, whose family owns the Prema squad, believes that the team should be able to hit the ground running on the more conventional road courses in 2025 - although concedes that the team will need more time to build up its performance and expertise on ovals.
"We don't just want to be a number [...] and we need to take whatever we can in the first year," Rosin told Autosport. "We need to take whatever experience [we can], get as much data as possible in the first part of the season.
"But with the driver duo we have, with the group of engineers we have, the group of people that we put together, I think we can be a surprise to the paddock.
"Maybe not at the beginning on oval circuits, because this is very difficult and very different from what we are used to. But on standard circuits, I think we can give our own opinion."
"We don't just want to be a number."
Prema will follow up its running at Thermal with a test at Laguna Seca on Thursday, with the intent of running through its procedures and set-up options for its debut at the St Petersburg season opener.
The team will do this without Michael Cannon, who left his post as technical director after just over two months with the team. Rosin stated that this was simply a matter of the two parties not meshing at the team, and so decided to go their separate ways.
"Some weddings are going right, some weddings are not going right, and I think this is what happened," he said.
"I wish him the best for his future career. With his pedigree, he's proven himself to be a winner and a great engineer.
"But if things didn't merge together, and then we prefer to stop like that."
