Andretti told NBCSN’s Robin Miller: “He did perfect, everything that he was supposed to do - got through all three phases [of ROP] so now we can go play a little bit.

“He's looking at data right now… so he can see what's on the data compared to what he's feeling out on the track. We'll probably get into a couple of trims, just so that he can get a feel of that. And then probably we're going to have some weather to deal with after that.

“But so far, everything's really perfect.”

Andretti added that Alonso’s increasing use of the Speedway’s track width was an indicator that the two-time World Champion was adapting well to ovals.

“He gets it; he's one of the best in the world and you can see why,” said Andreti. “He watched what he was doing with his line, he was changing it up lap after lap to get a feel.

“He had a little bit of understeer and he adjusted his line for the understeer, so, you know... he's the real deal. He was experimenting. One time I thought he was a little low but then the next lap he got it back up there a little bit, so it was good.”

Asked if it still felt like a big deal, Andretti said: “Well, it's exciting, when Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO] and Mark Miles [IndyCar CEO] called me, I was like, 'OK, I don't know how we're going to do this but we're going to do it, we're going to figure out a way to get it done'.

“It was just good teamwork, everybody working together to get it done. It's too big of a story, too big of a deal for our team, to have somebody like Fernando running with us, and being associated with McLaren – it's just a fantastic opportunity for us that we were not going to let slip by.”