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[Rad-oh-yeah?]

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Challenge and promise in 2018 car, Andretti drivers say
Saturday, 10 February 2018
RACER staff / Images by Abbott, LePage/LAT




The first day of IndyCar open testing with the 2018 aero package at Phoenix left a number of drivers concerned about their ability to pass other cars and cope with traffic. However, Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay noted that there were more elements to factor into the performance equation – if not a lot of time, given the limitations on testing, to come to terms with them all.

"I don't know. I'm not sure," admitted Hunter-Reay (pictured below during Friday's night session) when asked about what the new package meant for next month's race at Phoenix. "It could be for the race weekend that if it goes in a direction where you have tire degradation, the car is sliding around a lot, everybody is struggling, yes, you can get passing going because the cars that have that little bit of advantage – better balance, some guy's got a rhythm going – you're going to have more opportunity to pass."



Teammate Alexander Rossi agreed there is plenty more to figure out about the new package, although he likes what he's found so far.

"I think it's easier to feel the car," he said. "It's still a big challenge. There's a lot of really good teams here. It's a big challenge to get the car in the right window, to find the balance for each individual driver under different circumstances – qualifying, race, temperatures, tire wear, etc. I don't think that part is any easier.

"It definitely is more of a natural driving style, I feel like, than the [previous] car. From that standpoint it's a positive. In terms of the engineering aspect, I'd say it's the exact same. It's a big challenge to get it right, as all motorsports is. That's how it should be. Hopefully the best teams and drivers come to the top."

Whatever its effect on the racing, teammate Marco Andretti (pictured, top) feels more at ease with the lower-downforce 2018 car than its predecessor.

"I prefer it. I like a lighter car," he said. "For me, I really struggled with the aero kit car. I felt it was very light, switchy grip. You're either slammed with downforce or it snaps like that. With this thing, it's on the edge the entire time. There's some predictability you get from it – you feel it more, but you're very on edge.

"We're definitely thrown into it a bit late. But, you know, it's still a racecar. I like how the feel comes more into the driver, I think. For me, I find it easier to drive it to the limit because it's a more established grip limit, rather than 'hoping it sticks' type thing, which is what my problem was last year."

Hunter-Reay noted that finding those limits in the allotted test time before the season begins will be tough, though.

"To put it into perspective, we're on track three days on a road course before we get to St. Pete. That's a very short amount of time," he said. "It's obviously not ideal, but we're just going to lace up our boots and get on with it. That's all you can do."

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

20 minuta do kraja popodnevnog testa, opet Sato na celu.

 

http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Gotovo, Sato ostao najbrzi:

 

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Poslednji test krece za neka 2 sata.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

 

Sato shines again in Saturday afternoon IndyCar test
Saturday, 10 February 2018
RACER staff / Image by Abbott/LAT




Day or night, hot or cooler, Takuma Sato continued to show everyone the quick way around Phoenix on Saturday afternoon.

After posting the fastest lap in Friday's opening session and then backing it up with the second-fastest speed behind teammate Graham Rahal on Friday night, Sato set quick time in Saturday's 80-degree temperatures.

The 2017 Indianapolis 500 winner threw in a lap of 19.392 seconds (189.728mph) in his Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Honda to just pip Will Power's best effort of 19.438s (189.276mph) in his Team Penske Chevrolet.

Scott Dixon posted the third-fastest lap of 19.520 (188.477mph) for Chip Ganassi's team, followed by Andretti Autosports' Ryan Hunter-Reay at 19.535s (188.331) and Penske's Simon Pagenaud at 19.537s (188.319).

The first 12 cars were separated by less than three-tenths of a second as 22 drivers completed the three-hour session with no incidents.

For most of the day it had been a Honda parade before Team Penske flexed its muscles late. Defending IndyCar champ Josef Newgarden sat out the first 90 minutes before putting up a lap of 19.621s in the final 45 minutes, which wound up eighth overall. And Pagenaud posted his good lap in the closing minutes.

Ed Jones put the other Ganassi entry into the top 10 with a circuit of 19.601s, while rookie Matheus Leist continued to impress for A.J. Foyt's team – turning in the ninth-best lap of 19.629s in his ABC Chevy.

Alexander Rossi wound up 10th and Rahal was 11th, both of their times coming early in the session.

Kyle Kaiser didn't participate Saturday as owner Richard Juncos headed back to Indianapolis following Thursday's rookie run and Friday's practice period.

Ide poslednji test: http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 11 February 2018 - 02:36.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

I ponovo Takuma-san najbrzi:
 

Sato paces final Phoenix session; Dixon has rare spin
Saturday, 10 February 2018
By RACER Staff / Image by IMS Photo




In the four practice sessions over two days at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Takuma Sato was fastest in three of them and second best in the other.

The 2017 Indianapolis 500 winner backed up his Saturday afternoon speed with the fastest lap in Saturday night's final three-hour session – 19.379 seconds at 189.855mph in his Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Honda.

But it was plenty crowded at the top as Sato barely edged Will Power's best effort of 19.387s (189.769mph) in the Team Penske Chevrolet and Tony Kanaan's 19.401s (189.632) in A.J. Foyt's Chevy.

"To wrap up today’s test, the open test was very successful, I would say," Sato said. "Lots of things done and lots of thing to be tried, and I think over the course of two days we learned a lot. Great car, definitely more exercise for the drivers, definitely busier with low downforce.

"I think the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team is really strong, so I’m really looking forward to two more road course tests and hopefully we’ll be ready for St. Pete."

Defending IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden was fourth fastest at 19.425s (189.399mph) in another Penske Chevy while Marco Andretti was fifth and the final member of the 189mph club at 19.465s (189.008) in the Andretti Honda.

The top 15 drivers were separated by less than four-tenths of a second around the one-mile oval as there was plenty of traffic and a few close calls but no major damage in the final hour.

Rookie Matheus Leist was a thrill show all by himself in Foyt's other car as he caromed off the Turn 2 wall 90 minutes into the evening session, then came back and twice made light contact with Turn 4 during the final half hour.

But the 19-year-old Brazilian still wound up 12th overall out of 22 cars and made a couple of spectacular passes in between his incidents.

And four-time IndyCar king Scott Dixon also slapped the Turn 2 wall with about 35 minutes left in the session in Chip Ganassi's Honda – incurring minor damage.

"We were just in traffic, there. It was our second or third lap out of the pits," said Dixon, who still finished with the seventh-fastest lap. "A couple of the Andretti cars got by and were a little bit slower. I got low in (Turns) 1 and 2, touched the throttle and had a bit of a run and lost the rear. Kind of late in the corner, but just touched with the rear and bent the left rear suspension."  

For combined times, click here.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Nisu dzabe Montoja i Servija jesenas rekli da ce novi bolid da pokaze ko kosi a ko vodu nosi medju vozacima. Karlinov dvojac placenika je "sokiran" koliko se teze mora raditi u bolidu sa 40% manje aeroprianjanja nego proslih sezona:
 

Carlin: Drivers shocked by IndyCar aerokit's sketchy oval behaviour
By David Malsher
Published on Saturday February 10th 2018




Trevor Carlin says his team was satisfied with its first day of IndyCar oval testing but that his drivers were "shocked" by the reduced downforce from the new aerokits.

Charlie Kimball and Max Chilton finished Friday's first day of testing at Phoenix 15th and 18th respectively, both recording more than 100 laps in the process.

Carlin said his team had been affected by "software gremlins" but that those had been sorted by the end of the first afternoon session and "the second session ran really smoothly" afterwards.

But the team owner said both Kimball and Chilton, who have seven and two years of experience in IndyCar respectively, were startled by the "sketchy" handling of their cars on the oval with the new for 2018 aerokit.

"It was a bit of a shock for them, their first time on an oval with these cars," he said.

"They'd heard all about the 40% loss of downforce but didn't realise the cars would still be so quick - roughly the same lap times as last year, but with a different way of making that speed.

"I think they were surprised by how sketchy the cars are. You can't carry as much speed in, so you're starting the corner sooner, getting the work done earlier.

"We started off with a baseline and then started the fine-tuning, and I think we made a bit of progress.

"It's like any championship when you first come in - you turn up, get a feel for the cars, and then start getting yourselves competitive. That's our next step."



Carlin also praised the quality of the IndyCar package.

"The front part of the car, in concept, is almost exactly the same as Dallara's IL15 [Indy Lights car], and then the rest of it is really well put together," he said. "[It's a] great gearbox from Xtrac.

"And then a fantastic engine - Chevrolet and Ilmor have done a lovely installation, too.

"Although we're new boys here, they couldn't be more professional, and they're working really well with us."

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Patrick says Indianapolis 500 deal is set, formal unveiling to come
By Brant James | Published: Feb 12, 2018




DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – Danica Patrick’s arrangement to finish her racing career at the 102nd Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil this May is complete, she told IndyCar.com on Sunday.

Patrick, 35, revealed in November that she is retiring from full-time racing after competing for seven Verizon IndyCar Series seasons – winning her only race in 2008 – and the past five full seasons for Stewart-Haas Racing in NASCAR’s top series. In that emotional press conference at Homestead-Miami Speedway three months ago, Patrick outlined a plan to race in the marquee events for both NASCAR and INDYCAR, dubbing her participation in the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 the “Danica Double.”

A public announcement of which team will field her entry in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” in May is not imminent, she said.

“No, I just needed to make sure it (the deal) was done,” she said. “The rest I don’t really care about.”

Patrick became a national media force in 2005 when she started and finished fourth as an Indy 500 rookie – at the time a record for a woman driver – for Rahal Letterman Racing, leading 19 laps – another first. She finished third in 2009 but has not competed in the event since 2011.

Although Patrick’s “Double” venture has been aided by a reunion with long-time sponsor GoDaddy, her business team did not secure and announce until January a Daytona 500 ride. Unable to land with a top-tier team, she qualified 28th-fastest on Sunday for Premium Motorsports, which has one top-five and five top-10s in 1,015 starts in NASCAR’s top three series combined.

The announcement for her Indianapolis 500 ride will, she said, “be a bit of a bigger deal.”

“Obviously, the start of this (NASCAR) season didn’t happen any different than last season did, where I showed up and I hadn’t been in the car since Homestead (the 2017 season finale). It’s no different than that,” she said.

“But Indy is obviously totally different. We’ll do something a little more substantial for the announcement and the unveil.”

Patrick doesn’t hesitate when considering which of her final two races she would rather win.

“Yeah, it would be Indy,” she said. “There’s nothing against Daytona, but just from being a young little girl, I had always wanted to win the Indy 500. It’s not to say that Daytona is not an enormous deal.

“But I have to go with what feels like the most important in my heart and I came from open-wheel racing, I wanted to win the Indy 500 from being a go-kart driver when I was a kid and came close a few times. It’s kind of what started it all for me, so there’s just a lot more history there.”

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INSIGHT: What's next for IndyCar's windscreen?
Monday, 12 February 2018
Marshall Pruett / Images by IndyCar; LePage/LAT




RACER and IndyCar competition president Jay Frye sat down Saturday afternoon during the Phoenix open test to discuss the findings and next steps forward with the windscreen driver safety device sampled by Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon during three runs – in daylight, at dusk, and at night – on Thursday.

QUESTION: With a day or two to think about the three sessions you ran, how do you think things went? Did you meet expectations?

JAY FRYE: Well, I think it certainly met expectations, and I believe it actually exceeded it because there were really no issues. Everything that Scott talked about or brought up were things we anticipated or expected. Obviously, there was no air flow in the cockpit, so it was hotter. Well, we expected that. We're going to have a remedy for that. One of the things he did say that we didn't think about was how quiet it was. That was an interesting comment.

It was 100 percent an optics test. We wanted to see what it did. We thought this was a great place to do it. Obviously, we were all here for everyone to see it take place. We could do it in the light, at dusk, and at dark, so we hit all three elements that we actually race on an oval going 190 miles an hour with it on the car, so it was a big box checker, I would say. Certainly, we appreciate all the Ganassi guys' help, Scott, and certainly PPG for all that they've done to get us to this point with the Opticor material and our own team, like you mentioned, with Jeff [Horton, IndyCar director of safety and engineering] and Terry [Trammell, IndyCar safety consultant] to put it all together.

Q: What is next on the to-do list? Was it a one-and-done for this unit, and do you go back and produce a Gen 2 screen to test somewhere else?

JF: We'll definitely look to build a Gen 2 next. We've got the data off this one from a performance perspective and an optics perspective, so we can definitely improve on this one. We want to get more drivers and teams engaged and involved in it, different courses. Obviously, we still need to take it to road course, street course, that type of thing, to look at that. We've got some more testing, durability testing, that we want to look at too that's got to be done. This was a big part of this process that this passed the test the other night. Now we can really get rolling and really accelerate this process to take it to the next level, but it's going to take some time.



Again, if that thing was not a prototype and it was exactly what we wanted and it worked exactly like we thought it would, which it basically did, it still wouldn't be ready for competition. We have things to look at like the best way to fix it to the car and get the shape exactly right. It's still going to take time to build them, to get them into inventory, to let the teams test them.

So we're not really wanting to put an exact timeframe on it yet. Now that we've got the optic test done, over the next couple weeks, we'll come up with a timeline. We'll come up with a very thorough plan and try to meet that timeline on what comes next. Even coming here, if you remember, we tried to do this last Fall and we got a little behind, but it was very important to get it on a car here. It was time to get it on an actual car with an actual driver to let them give us their feedback.

Q: The only thing I heard from Scott to investigate on the optics was in the second run, the dusk run, where he said there was a little bit of issue focusing through part of the window where he looking through to pick apex points. Were there any other comments like that where you're going to want to go back and take a closer look on some specific items that stood out for retooling?

JF: Yeah, that area was one, and we were aware it was a possibility. The way I understand it, how the screen was laid up meant that was possible. Again, this being a prototype, I think the final shape will end up being little different than what it currently is. It'll be sleeker. The edges will be different. The way it's affixed to the car will be different.

That was one of the things: the bolt pattern holding the screen onto the flange; the unit the screen mounts to. When he looked, going into the corner, he saw the bolts and hardware in his sight, so that wasn't necessarily the optics, but we want to clean that up in the Gen 2 model. It was great learning, and again, there were really no big surprises in any way, so that was key.



Q: Provided the screen gets the green light for competition at whatever point in time, do you think it would be used everywhere, or only ovals?

JF: I think it would be something that we would want to do permanently. We go to very diverse racetracks, road courses, street courses, ovals, at night, in the day, so when we originally started this project, it was created as something that could be adaptable to anywhere we race.

Q: All right, let me drill into some of the questions that have been asked a thousand times on social media. So, I don't know if you've ever thought it, but are you aware oil and water could actually hit the front of the screen?

JF: Yes, we did actually think about that before it was tested [laughs].

Q: The screen did the test with a large tear-off on it. Talk a little bit about tear-offs, debris, oil, water, and how they will be managed. If a driver gets a lot of gunk on their visor, they can peel it off easily and it's a fairly small piece to get rid of. With the screen's tear-offs, this is obviously something much bigger to pull and discard. If you pull it and throw it behind you while racing, it would be a caution flag for debris...

JF: No, it certainly will be something that's done on a pitstop. Rain is a non-issue on the ovals because nobody races in the rain on ovals. And if it rains on a road or street course, we'll have tear-offs just like the drivers do with an application like Rain-X where it beads and rolls off. We aren't having to reinvent the wheel with what we're doing here.

Q: How about dealing with oil?

JF: Yes. Oil, obviously, is another thing. If we have oil down, and the track's oiled up, we're going to throw the yellow, and they're going to pit, and on the pitstop, they'll have the opportunity to peel the tear-off off. So that's really what it's there for, not for the drivers to do it.

Q: In NASCAR and sports cars, you can see a lot of debris on the windshields, but rarely is it to the point to where the driver can't find a place to look through. And with oil, windshield wipers aren't an option because it would make the situation worse, which makes incorporating a miniature wiper system for IndyCar a waste of time?

JF: For sure. Worst case, there's still going to be somewhere where you can see until you pit. And the tear-off material technology is so good today, they solve a lot of problems on their own.



Q: What kind of effects does the screen have on the day-to-day performance and physics of the car? By bolting it on, how might the screen change the chassis tuning for a team?

JF: Well, it'll add weight. The actual Opticor piece weighs around 14 pounds. Again, the mounting flange, which was just for this test, adds another six pounds. In the next shape, how it's done, some of it can be trimmed where it weighs a little less, so that'll help. This new car, the weight distribution is already moved forward, so then this is part of that. It has a slight change on aerodynamics, too.

Q: The screen was also part of the 2018 bodywork design process from the outset – that might surprise a few people.

JF: Correct. We designed with it on and with it off. This version of car was designed to accept the application of this deflector screen. It was part of the design, so when we put the drawings out originally, we didn't show the screen because we weren't sure exactly what we were going to do. It was debatable at that point, so when it was on, when it's been on the car, people have said, hey, that looks good. Well, that was planned, to a degree, that we wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing like the rest of the car.

Q: Ballistic impact testing. I know that this Opticor material already has a ton of data that comes with it. What are the plans to fire stuff at it and see how it performs and how it deflects how it deflects debris?

JF: Well, that's part of the next step in the process that we're actually going to go through, what we're going to do and where we're going to it. We talked some about it yesterday. There's already some different ideas on how we could make it work and do it as quickly as we can.

But we want it to withstand some heavy items and redirect them. There's always the wheels and things like that to test. That's the expectation, so we're going to do some testing and send some big things at it.

Q: How about from a vertical load? Josef Newgarden's crash at Texas two years ago [below] comes to mind, or a car getting upside down. Normally you have the roll hoop, front of the tub, driver's head beneath, and there's always that rule of drawing a line between the two points and having the driver's helmet well beneath it.

Now, with the screen in place, the loadbearing piece at the front of the car is no longer the top of the tub, so in would actually be from the top of the roll hoop to the top of the screen. The screen would now be expected to be that hard point. Is that data that you have already to know it will stand up to high vertical loads, or is that part of any upcoming vertical load tests?



JF: That's part of an upcoming test. We'll look at all those types of things. There's parts about, if a car's on its side or upside down, how's the driver coming out of the car, how that works. We watched Scott the other night getting in and out of the car and timed him to see the difference between how it is now compared to how it is then, and it really was no different. I mean, the driver's got to lift their leg up a little higher, but no big deal.

You try to look at everything that you can and anticipate all you can. Obviously, we have a lot of confidence in [Opticor manufacturer] PPG. We have a lot of confidence in what they've done already. We have a lot of confidence in what this application's already been built for, so you've got a really good head start. So now we've got to go, OK, from a racing perspective, a new application for this material, what other things do we want to do to it to see how it performs?

Q: The thickness of the Opticor screen is four-tenths of an inch (10.2mm), and it weighs 14 pounds. Do you think the width could increase or decrease, which would impact its weight, or do you think the four-tenths and 14 pounds is baked in as the right size?

JF: We saw it worked at that thickness for the optics test, but we'll have to confirm it once we do all the strength testing. The shape could evolve a little bit, so I wouldn't be surprised if we trimmed a pound or two through the Gen 2 profile. The 14 pounds it's at now, you would use that as the baseline number that I wouldn't think will change too much.



Q: And how about the structure that it mounts to? It was 3D-printed, so would maybe that become carbon or Kevlar in the final version?

JF: Probably. The flange is also something we're working on. The whole piece was designed for the 2018 bodywork and the aesthetics of it, but we're still dealing with the same tub, chassis, right? The optimal thing would be to create some sort of proper track [that] the screen sits in, and then you bolt around it to hold it in position. That's the next step. If we can do it exactly how we want to do it, how feasible is it to do it to this current Dallara application that we're dealing with? What we had for the test here was not something any of us considered to be the ultimate version of how the screen will be attached to the car.

Q: What kind of feedback or questions have you gotten from the rest of the paddock after seeing the screen test?

JF: It's been really good. I mean, they were very curious how it went. Not everybody was here yet, and then they saw the reaction, that the test went well, that aesthetically it seemed to be very well-received. Again, safety is paramount to all of us. If this is something we can do and do it right and do it as quickly as we can, we're certainly on track or on target for that, so there was enthusiasm for the entire project by everyone.

Q: Is this device going to be something that is expensive? And is this going to be something teams purchase, or the series and teams go in on together?

JF: That's one of the next steps. When we first started this a couple years ago, there were some things that we researched and we found out what F16 canopies were going for. It was one of those random questions, and we were really actually quite surprised how inexpensive they were. We don't have a number for this yet because we haven't gotten to the final stage with the design, but I don't think the cost will end up being a prohibitive matter in any way.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Do sada potvrdjeni ucesnici Indikar sampionata 2018:
 

Full-Time Entries:

A.J. Foyt Racing (Chevrolet)
No. 4 Matheus Leist (rookie)
No.14 Tony Kanaan

Andretti Autosport (Honda)
No.26 Zach Veach (rookie)
No.27 Alexander Rossi
No.28 Ryan Hunter-Reay
No.98 Marco Andretti

Carlin Racing (Chevrolet)
No.23 Charlie Kimball
No.59 Max Chilton

Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)
No.9 Scott Dixon
No.10 Ed Jones

Dale Coyne Racing/DCR with Vasser-Sullivan (Honda)
No.18 Sebastien Bourdais
No.19 Zachary Claman De Melo (rookie): St. Pete, Long Beach, Barber, Detroit 1/2, Road America, Iowa, Toronto, Pocono, Gateway. Pietro Fittipaldi: Phoenix, Indy GP, Indy 500, Texas, Mid-Ohio, Portland, Sonoma

Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet)
No.20 Ed Carpenter: Phoenix, Indy 500, Texas, Iowa, Pocono, Gateway. Jordan King (rookie): St. Pete, Long Beach, Barber, Indy GP, Detroit 1/2, Road America, Toronto, Mid-Ohio, Portland, Sonoma
No.21 Spencer Pigot

Harding Racing (Chevrolet)
No.88 Gabby Chaves

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda)
No.15 Graham Rahal
No.30 Takuma Sato

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (Honda)
No.5 James Hinchcliffe
No.7 Robert Wickens (rookie).

Team Penske (Chevrolet)
No.1 Josef Newgarden
No.12 Will Power
No.22 Simon Pagenaud


Part-time entries (two races, minimum):

Juncos Racing (Chevrolet)
No.32: Kyle Kaiser (rookie): Phoenix, Long Beach, Indy GP, Indy 500. Rene Binder (rookie): St. Pete, Barber, Toronto, Mid-Ohio

Michael Shank Racing with SPM (Honda)
No.60 Jack Harvey (rookie): St. Pete, Long Beach, Indy 500, Mid-Ohio, Portland, Sonoma

Team Penske (Chevrolet)
No.3: Helio Castroneves: Indy GP, Indy 500

Totals:
Chevy: 12
Honda: 13
Rookies: 9

 

Porrd ovih, samo za Indi 500 potvrdjeni su jos:

 

Andreti: #25 Stefan Vilson, #29 Karlos Munjoz

 

Kojn: #63 Pipa Man

 

Lazir: Badi Lazir (ceka se potvrda pod kojim brojem ce se takmiciti)

 

#7 Danika Patrik (ceka se potvrda za koji tim ce se takmiciti)

Sto se tice slobodnih bolida, Smit-Piterson planira jos jedan bolid (pored svoja standardna dva za celu sezonu, i jedan u saradnji sa Majkom Senkom), a Drejer & Rejnbolt planiraju dva (za sada jos uvek nepotvrdjeno ali jedan bi mogao biti u saradnji sa AFS Rejsingom u kom slucaju bi vozio Sebastijan Savedra).

 

Posto su Andreti, Kojn i Smit-Piterson Hondini timovi to onda podize broj prijavljenih Hondi za Indi na 17 (sto je maksimum). Lazir i D&R su Seviji, i sa njima imamo 15 potvrdjenih Sevroleta za brojku od 32 bolida.

 

Sto znaci da ce Danika voziti Sevrolet (isto kao i na Dejtoni) i to u nekom do sada nenajavljivanom bolidu za tradicionalni broj od 33 startera.

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 13 February 2018 - 13:41.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Hope for Phoenix passing rises at IndyCar test
Tuesday, 13 February 2018
Marshall Pruett / Images by Abbott, Levitt, LePage/LAT



With the benefit of another night to work on their race setups, some IndyCar drivers left the Phoenix open test Saturday night with a more encouraging view of what could take place during the April 7 race.

Friday night's three-hour session was remarkable for its lack of competitive passing – it was a rarity to see one driver chasing another down and executing a daring maneuver – but Saturday night's running did offer a better look of how the race might produce some thrills.

The offseason move from using Chevy- and Honda-designed aero kits producing crushing downforce to new-for-2018 universal kits that shed a significant amount of downforce and drag has altered how the cars navigate the one-mile ISM Raceway oval. The 2016 and 2017 races generated long trains of cars glued to the track, and with the series searching for a cure to that boredom, the downforce scale was tipped far in the opposite direction for the test.

Last weekend's outings showed exactly how far it has shifted as many drivers fought to control cars that oversteered, understeered, and slid beneath them on a regular basis. In concert with having to lift off the throttle in Turns 1 and 3 – a new experience for everyone – fans observed a talented field of drivers who were doing all they could to hold on while lapping near 190mph.



According to defending race winner Simon Pagenaud, 250 laps of peril at ISM Raceway could be where a new kind of entertainment is presented in Arizona.

"I was surprised how much it changed by Saturday night," the Team Penske Chevy driver told RACER. "We found a really good setup on our car, and I really went for it. People were doing long runs so it was good to see the tire degradation. And because there are cars with degradation that's so much worse than yours, it gives you an opportunity to play the game of passing. I was super pleased.

"At first, I was worried because I didn't feel a draft, but as people had problems with tire deg, they lifted more – and if you have a good car, that's when you can make a lot of passes. A lot better than I did in the race last year. But you don't want to be the one whose car isn't handling well, let me tell you."



Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay, winner of the 2014 Indy 500, also believes tire preservation will be the deciding factor in who moves forward and who plummets during each stint in the race.

"From my perspective, it's very difficult out there," Hunter-Reay said. "After 25 or 30 laps, you feel like you're hanging on for dear life. On the one hand, that's great; you feel like you're fully in charge of the car instead of being flat [on the throttle] the whole time because of the [aero kit era] downforce. But then you realize a stint is going to be 60 to 70 laps, and if your tires are done barely halfway through every stint...

"It's going to be a handful, that's for sure. Even if you're taking great care of your tires, I don't think you're going to get close to the end of a stint running the type of speeds you did at the beginning. That drop off is going to be pretty severe."



From all that was observed from inside his Andretti Honda, Hunter-Reay wonders if there's a mismatch in the vital interaction between downforce and tire life. Considering the long lead time needed to make new tires, an increase in downforce for the race could be the fastest remedy if IndyCar is in agreement with his assessment.

"Behind the wheel, what it really feels like to me is the downforce level, in conjunction with the current Firestone tire compound, doesn't match," he added. "We'd gone down the road with a tire that had to be developed to deal with the massive aero loads, and now that we don't have all that downforce, it feels more like a speedway tire – something that's harder so it can deal with the higher speeds and scrub.

"But when the speed decreases and the aero load decreases to what we have at Phoenix, it feels like the tire is up on top of the track. I think there's going to be passing, but it's going to be like the test where an ill-handling car bottlenecks everyone up, and we're going to be tripping over each other to get by. It's like wearing your sneakers on ice. It's a product of the development path we've gone down, which is no fault of Firestone."

Opportunistic passing could be the constant when the green flag waves under the lights at Phoenix. Whether it's a car pulling out of the pits and balking oncoming drivers, or a car's handling falling off much sooner than expected and being pounced on from behind, Carlin Racing's Charlie Kimball believes capitalizing on misfortune will account for most of the overtaking.

"It definitely got ragged Saturday night," he said. "I think part of it was people were doing long runs at different times in the last 90 minutes and doing pit stops, so a lot of people were getting checked up, and some people were on older tires. Now, IndyCar's done 100 percent the right thing by rewarding those who achieve better setups with lighter downforce and more efficient drag coefficients, and now we have the ability to pop off the corners and accelerate better than we have with the aero kits. So the potential is there. But it's going to be [tire] degradation that makes the passing possible."


Charlie Kimball (left) talks shop with Carlin teammate Max Chilton at Phoenix.

Kimball, like many IndyCar drivers, says being mindful of the single-lane dynamic at Phoenix will be a requirement if everyone wants to bring their cars home intact.

"I think it's going to race better than it has the last two years, but at the same time, when has Phoenix ever raced like we see at Indy or Iowa with lots of passing?" he asked. "Even in the good old days in the '80s and '90s at Phoenix, you go and watch those races on YouTube and there isn't a lot of passing. It's a single-groove racetrack.

"I had a few experiences with guys diving down the inside or trying to go around people on the outside, and the outer groove was miserable. Someone came out of pit lane into Turn 3, a guy thought he'd go around the outside, and I thought he was going to pancake hard before he saved it. Because of the lack of downforce, the lane's a little narrower – the single groove is heightened. It isn't a place where you can go two or three wide, so it's unrealistic to think it's going to race like a superspeedway.

"We're doing 189mph, running low 19-second laps, which is a half-second off the track record. That's remarkable. But we also need to realize Phoenix isn't a track like Pocono where going five wide into Turn 1 is possible. It's going to be a case where if you're taking care of each other and not doing anything stupid at the last second, disaster can be avoided."

Slipping and sliding. Big steering inputs to keep cars off the walls. Come April 7, IndyCar fans might see an entirely different race than was initially predicted.

"There's going to be a lot of differences between cars and drivers at Phoenix, and we're going to see skills again," Pagenaud said. "The car isn't doing so much of the work now, which I like. It's up to you to make your speed and deal with whatever problems come your way. There's no mask on the problems when the downforce is taken away. I think it's going to be a lot better race.

"I'm not saying it's going to be running next to each other for 20 laps like we do at Iowa, but as we lose grip during the stint, it's going to come down to who has the right setup and who can manage the problem from inside the cockpit better than the rest. It's not going to be easy, but we should have more opportunities to pass, which we've never had before."

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Sto znaci da ce Danika voziti Sevrolet (isto kao i na Dejtoni) i to u nekom do sada nenajavljivanom bolidu za tradicionalni broj od 33 startera.

 
Nije da se hvalim, al' rek'o sam vam:
 

Danica Patrick implies ECR plan for Indy 500
Wednesday, 14 February 2018
RACER staff / Image by Kinrade/LAT



 
Danica Patrick has worked hard over the past week to keep the media focus on the first half of her "Danica Double" – Sunday's Daytona 500 with the No.7 Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports, in what is scheduled to be her final NASCAR race. But an apparently inadvertent slip of the tongue at Wednesday's Media Day at Daytona turned attention back on her upcoming Indianapolis 500 return.

When asked about when she will start going into Indy 500 mode, she said: "I didn't have time to meet up with Ed and the people ..." After a brief pause, she added, "I have never done that in my career."

Patrick's Indy program, which like her Daytona run is to be sponsored by GoDaddy and is scheduled to be her final race before retirement, has been widely speculated to be aligned with Ed Carpenter Racing, although this is the closest thing to a confirmation to have been made by driver or team.  

Earlier this week, Patrick told IndyCar.com that while her Indy deal had been finalized, she intended to confirm its details after Daytona: "We'll do something a little more substantial for the announcement and the unveil."

Meanwhile, Patrick also revealed that she would Green Pay Packers NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers will be at Daytona Sunday to support her NASCAR sendoff. 

"He's going to be here to support me and he's excited," Patrick, who acknowledged last month that she and the NFL star were dating, told the Associated Press. "I'm excited to show him what I do."

 

Karpenterov tim vozi Sevroletove motore i ovo ce biti njihov treci bolid (u #20 ce kao i uvek na ovalima biti gazda Ed, u #21 standardni Spenser Pigot). Do sada se nije spominjala mogucnost da ce tim imati treci bolid ove sezone.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Sad je i zvanicno potvrdjeno iz tima, Danika ce voziti na Indi 500 za Karpentera!

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

PROJECTED 2018 INDIANAPOLIS 500 ENTRIES

ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT
Marco Andretti, Ryan-Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, Zach Veach, Carlos Munoz, Stefan Wilson (6)

TEAM PENSKE
Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud (4)

DALE COYNE RACING
Sebastien Bourdais, Pietro Fittipaldi, Pippa Mann, Conor Daly (4)

RAHAL/LETTERMAN/LANIGAN
Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato, Oriol Servia (3)

SCHMIDT-PETERSON/SHANK
James Hinchcliffe, Robert Wickens, Jack Harvey (3)

ED CARPENTER RACING
Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter, Danica Patrick (3)

CHIP GANASSI RACING
Scott Dixon, Ed Jones (2)

A.J. FOYT RACING
Tony Kanaan, Matheus Leist (2)

CARLIN RACING
Max Chilton, Charlie Kimball (2)

DREYER & REINBOLD
Sage Karam, J.R. Hildebrand (2)

HARDING RACING
Gabby Chaves (1)

JUNCOS RACING
Kyle Kaiser (1)

LAZIER RACING
Buddy Lazier (1)

 

Ovo mi je pomalo preoptimisticno, ne verujem da su moguci i cetvrti Kojnov i treci Reholov bolid. Jedan od ta dva da, ali ne oba. Sanse da bude 18 Hondi su jako, jako male.

 

Inace bilo bi lepo da i Servija i Dejli i Karam i Hildebrand dobiju priliku, no nazalost neko od njih ce morati da izvisi...