By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
The new era for the IndyCar Series officially started this weekend with validation testing for the IR-28 car configuration.
Alexander Rossi and Alex Palou were the first two drivers to turn laps in the new car, doing so on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road course. Rossi piloted the car on Saturday, with Palou hopping in on Sunday. A total of 69 laps were turned across the two-day test
For Rossi, it felt like “Christmas morning”, being the first driver to officially test the car and was thoroughly impressed after his day of running.
“Aesthetically, I think it ticks every box that you can hope for,” Rossi said. “I was blown away when I saw it the first time. It’s super aggressive in terms of the balance. In terms of the baseline setup, it was very comfortable from the get-go. The build quality and how well put together the entire package is very impressive. To be able to be a part of this next evolution of IndyCar, to do it at IMS, a place that obviously means a lot to me and all of us here, it’s super cool.”
Rossi tested the car in muggy conditions, mixed with the occasional rain shower. Drivers have expressed issues with cooling in the current IndyCar, but Rossi was optimistic about the chances of improved cooling in the new car.
“It’s hard to say,” Rossi said. “It’s pretty muggy and a damp racetrack. It’s not fixed but it’s better. We don’t really know what we have yet, early days with the car, but there are smart people at Dallara and Indycar, who will hit it out of the park.”
With both sessions being hampered by spotty, misting, rain showers, feedback regarding visibility in the new, wider aeroscreen was something Palou mentioned to the team crewing the car over the weekend.
“I think they already had some ideas of what we can do to try and get the water out a little bit more,” Palou said. “It’s still an aero screen. It’s not as bad as the old one, maybe just because of the shape, it kind of rolls a bit more. On the straights, the water is all good, but with 27 other cars, it is not going to be easy to see.”
Another positive that Palou gave to the media on Sunday afternoon was the benefit of the wider cockpit in the IR-28.
“It’s huge. It’s a big difference,” Palou said. “The one we have now is very narrow, and here with the new one, it has a lot of space. It’s still a single seater, obviously. It’s not like we have space for a cooler or Apple CarPlay, suddenly, but it’s good. It feels like I have enough room to do whatever I want and hopefully the bigger, taller guys are going to have more space. It feels safer and you don’t feel as crowded as much.”
From the IndyCar side, Mike O’Gara, IndyCar Vice President of Competition, Race Engineering, was pleased with the amount of data and running that took place as Dallara will now comb over said data and evaluate the beginning stages of manufacturing IR-28 chassis.
“Successful couple of days,” O’Gara said. “Would really like to have given Alex [Palou] some dry laps, given the weather conditions. We got through a lot of things on the checklist, tried some different downforce levels and just tried to tick off boxes for Dallara on things they wanted.”
With a new car comes growing pains and if there are changes to the current design of the IR-28, O’Gara, who mentioned this as “the smoothest rollout we’ve had”, driver feedback will be of utmost importance.
“The good news is that Palou’s and Rossi’s feedback was very similar,” O’Gara said. “They were looking for the same range on brake bias and aerodynamic balance, so it’s all lining up, which helps us a lot. If we had two completely different sets of feedback, it would be a tougher job.”
The next test for the IR-28 is currently rumored to be on the IMS oval in September, after the IndyCar season ends.