As remnants of morning mist in hallows of Barber Motorsports Park dissipated, 23 Verizon IndyCar Series cars were rolled onto pit lane to form a straight line.
The initial all comers test of the year exchanged nervous anticipation with purpose, and the fog of uniformity was lifted in favor of radical aerodynamic bodywork kits that will certainly differentiate manufacturers Chevrolet and Honda aesthetically and potentially performance-wise.
“It’s really a new era,” Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud said before the first session on the 2.38-mile, 17-turn road course.
The March 16-17 test is designed to prepare teams and drivers for the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 29 (3 p.m. ET, ABC), which will mark the competition debut of the road/street course and short oval aero components.
Nineteen drivers eagerly tested March 14 on the 2.74-mile, 13-turn NOLA Motorsports Park road course, and many teams will continue development of the package next week.
“As a driver I want to congratulate the manufacturers and INDYCAR on these aero kits,” added Pagenaud, driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet. “I think it will create a lot of fan interest.
“At NOLA, we were able to improve the braking quite a bit and the cars actually have a much more stable aerodynamic feel when you brake and go through a high-speed corner. We don’t have the strakes anymore on the car, which provided a lot of downforce, but we are able to recuperate that downforce with the wings and a lot of the devices on the aero kits.”
Added four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais, driver of the No. 11 KVSH Racing Chevrolet: “There is more downforce for sure and it’s a compromise to find different solutions to being quick. We’re happily surprised that it didn’t radically change the car either. What was true is still basically true so you don’t have to change everything on the car to make it work.”
Optional components can be racetrack specific and also utilized to suit a driver’s style, so not only will the Chevrolet package look different from the Honda but potentially also between a team’s entries.
“It’s really understanding the bits and pieces on the car, and that’s what we’re focusing on here,” Bourdais added. “I like the look of the cars; it differentiates IndyCar from the rest of open wheel.”
Bourdais earned the pole for the inaugural Indy car race on the 1.8-mile, 13-turn St. Petersburg street circuit in 2003 and he expects a challenge to the 1:00.928 (106.710) qualifying lap record March 28 because of the gains interwoven in the engine-aero platform.
“The speed (at the NOLA test) was there right out of the box and it was pretty seamless hitting the track and getting the aero details sorted,” said three-time series champion Scott Dixon, driver of the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
