"You can draft from way back" - Pagenaud
By: Mark Glendenning | 3 hours ago
Simon Pagenaud expects a draft-happy Month of May following the first day of practice for the 2018 Indianapolis 500.
The Team Penske driver ended Tuesday with the fastest overall time across all sessions, but said that the drafting characteristics of the new aero was one of the biggest lessons from the day’s running.
“The draft is bigger than last year,” he said. “I don’t know why, but you can draft from way back. But you still get an aero wash. There’s not as much turbulence as last year, but finding the balance is going to be challenging. I think it’s going to be the same kind of racing [as in recent years]. Crazy.”
Adding to the challenge, he said, is the relative simplicity of the new aero package, which requires the teams to find new ways of addressing handling imbalances.
“There’s obviously a lot less options than what we had in the past,” Pagenaud said. “With all the winglets we had, it was very complicated. Now it’s more simple, but it’s a different way to make the car work. You got to keep an open mind, that’s for sure. But tomorrow’s going to be a different checklist, different items that we’re going to try, probably more mechanical. Today was more an aerodynamic day.”
Struggles to find balance in traffic was a common opening day theme.
“The car had a really good balance when I ran by myself,” said Dreyer & Reinbold returnee Sage Karam. “So, we started with that and then tried to trim out and gain more speed by myself. Once I felt comfortable there, I ran with traffic. This was the first time I ran in traffic with the new car and it’s interesting. It looks like everyone is dealing with the same issue, which is the lack of front grip. These new cars, when you don’t have clean air, you lose a lot of front grip. That’s the battle for everyone right now, is to find front grip.”
Mesec Maj 2018. - 102. Indijanapolis 500
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Posted 16 May 2018 - 04:05
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Posted 16 May 2018 - 04:06
Patrick encouraged after opening day of Indy practice
By: Robin Miller | 3 hours ago
Danica Patrick was right in the middle of a 12-car train during Happy Hour Tuesday afternoon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as she tried to get comfortable again with traffic and 225mph.
“It felt pretty good,” said Patrick, who was in between Will Power and Carlos Munoz on the speed chart in 20th spot with a best lap of 222.728mph in her ECR Chevy.
“I’m still not completely confident in traffic. They’re trying to encourage me to use my tools and the bars, you know, the weight jacker and things. I’m like, I need to feel the traffic first.
“Before we create another variable as to what’s going on, I need to familiarize myself and get sharp again with the traffic and just the tendencies of the car.”
Absent from IndyCars for seven years, Patrick turned 91 laps and kept creeping up on speed.
“I felt like it was a really solid day,” said the 36-year-old, who has finished third, fourth and sixth in her seven Indy starts. “I feel like the car has a lot of good natural speed in it. It was very smooth. We tried a handful of things and found some stuff that worked.
“It definitely feels like understeer, and traffic is going to be the determining factor of where you go. You can get a decent lap, but once you get close up on a car in front, you’re going to deal with the front getting really light on you. That’s the job at hand, how do you fix that and make yourself feel comfortable alone, find that balance.”
The only female to ever lead the Indy 500 was asked how difficult it was to acclimate herself to 230 mph in a 1,700-pound car compared to a 3,500-pound stock car she’d driven in NASCAR since 2011.
“Relearning the feel, remembering kind of the pattern of lifting and sort of the timing of it, where you do it in the corner, where you downshift, when you up-shift, when you leave it, little things like that,” she replied.
“I would say that just driving the car and being distracted with other things, like adjustments and traffic and looking in my mirrors and things like that, I’m getting a little bit more comfortable and almost reminding myself like, ‘Hey, you’re not thinking hard enough about that corner there, and you’re doing 230, so…’
“But that’s what you need to get to. You need to get to the point where driving the car is very natural and instinctive on what’s happening, be able to digest the other scenarios, the cars around you, the adjustments you’re making, thinking ahead on the adjustments, timing passes. The race is very little of just driving the car, and a lot of the other stuff.”
Patrick sounded satisfied after day one, and knows she’s got a good support staff at Ed Carpenter Racing.
“I would say for day one of Indy 500 week went really well,” she said. “We accomplished what we wanted to. We ran alone. We tried things. We got the car to turn a little bit better. We go t in traffic for a good few laps, quite a few. I think the team is very solid and we have great cars. It’s a great organization. I don’t need to be silly. We can rely on teammates, you know, pace ourselves a little bit here and there.
“I kind of kept the mantra in mind like I had when I came to the test, that it’s about building confidence, not breaking confidence.”
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Posted 17 May 2018 - 01:45
Andretti tops second day of Indy 500 practice
By: Robin Miller | 2 hours ago
Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan led the way in the two speed categories during Wednesday’s Indy 500 practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Andretti, in the Andretti Autosport Honda, threw down the fastest lap of the month at 227.053mph early in the seven-hour session and it held up as all 35 driver/car combinations practiced on a mostly overcast day.
“Just checking off boxes right now and a lot of test items,” said Andretti, who has finished second, third (three times) and fourth during his 12 starts. “We got through a ton of stuff today and it was pretty productive. We got the car to almost there in traffic but we’re not there yet.
“I’m sure everyone’s dealing with a similar thing. But we have a direction, which is positive.”
Kanaan, driving AJ Foyt’s ABC Supply Chevrolet, had the quickest lap of 223.048mph without the assist of a tow on a day when 3,349 laps were turned. Teammate and rookie Matheus Leist was fifth fastest without a tow at 222.098mph.
“I tried to run by myself as much as possible,” said the 2013 Indy winner. “I don’t know how many guys are trying qualifying setups but I made one run today and it wasn’t trimmed out as much as I would if I was qualifying.
“Just trying to get a feel for what we’ve got and I’m pleased where we’re at.”
Four-time IndyCar champ Scott Dixon was second-best overall at 226.329mph in the Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, and 2017 race winner Takuma Sato checked in with the third-fastest lap of 226.108mph in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda as part of a 19-car train in the closing 30 minutes.
Ed Carpenter continued to shine in both categories – eighth-best overall at 225.164mph, and second on the no-tow list with 222.754mph. Sage Karam, making his first appearance since last year’s Indy 500, was 10th overall at 224.887mph in DRR Chevy, while teammate J.R. Hildebrand was 20th at 224.128mph.
“I’m excited to have a teammate again this year,” said Karam. “I think the last time I was able to compare steering traces or anything like that was in 2015. That’s always good to come back to the garage and bounce ideas off another guy. We got more engineers in the room this year.
“It’s definitely a good situation. Me and JR are working well together. The cars have been great. The refresher went well for me a couple weeks ago. We just picked up right where we left off.”
The only caution of the day came for a tow-in for Kanaan, who suffered a throttle-linkage problem.
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#55
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Posted 17 May 2018 - 12:39
U Andretiju su juce ponovili jednu istorijsku fotku. Na originalu su pokojni Dzastin Vilson i EjDzej Almendinger, na novoj Vilsonov brat Stefan i Zak Vic:
Arni Sribhen @neckthai
This is one of my favorite photos of #BadAssWilson and @AJDinger...so I asked @FollowAndretti to recreate it with @stef_wilson and @ZachVeach
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Posted 17 May 2018 - 15:25
Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 17 May 2018 - 21:11.
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#58
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Posted 17 May 2018 - 23:09
Danas najbrzi Grem Rehol ispred Kanana i Andretija. Imali smo i prvo overavanje zida, Hildebrand je otisao presiroko u poslednjoj krivini i to se nije dobro zavrsilo. Uskoro detaljnije sa kompletnim rezultatima.
Sutra je "Brzi petak", motori se bustuju za kvalifikacije, krila se trimuju do maksimuma moguceg (cak tako da zadnje krilo umesto prianjanja proizvodi uzgon!) u trazenju setapa koji ce dozvoliti 4 kruga bez oduzimanja gasa sa driftovanjem kroz krivine. Treba ocekivati znacajna povecanja brzine u odnosu na vidjeno do sada, i bice nam jasnije ko ima sanse za plasman u kvalifikacije za pol ("brzih 9") a ko ce se muciti da uopste upadne medju 33.
Kvalifikacije su vec sad za vikend, u subotu odredjujemo 33 startera (i "brzih 9") a u nedelju sa kojih pozicija ce da startuju.
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Posted 18 May 2018 - 01:10
Rahal, Kanaan, Andretti pace Thursday Indy 500 practice
By: Robin Miller | 45 minutes ago
Graham Rahal didn’t intend to put up a big number on Thursday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but it just worked out that way.
“I wanted to do a qualifying sim but a couple cars pulled out ahead of me so I just decided to stay in it (the throttle) and go for it,” Rahal said after posting the day’s fastest lap of 226.047mph in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda.
“That’s not my MO but I figured I might as well do it and try to put up a good one and lower my dad’s blood pressure.”
Rahal had been 34th out of 35 on Wednesday’s speed chart so it was good for the RLL stable’s peace of mind.
“Today was definitely better so sure and yesterday we didn’t put in any effort to actually put in a decent lap,” continued the 29-year-old second-generation racer who currently sits sixth in the point standings.
“Clearly everybody starts questioning, worried, this and that so there was a lot of motivation to go and try to put together a decent one today. It was a solid run but every qualifying sim I did today somebody came out in front of me so I didn’t get a single one.”
While Rahal’s speed was only fifth overall for the week (Marco Andretti is tops with 227.053mph), Will Power upped the best lap for drivers getting no tow around the famed oval.
Power, in the Team Penske Verizon-sponsored Chevy, put up a 223.971mph, as Sebastien Bourdais, Simon Pagenaud and Charlie Kimball were also over 223mph with no help from traffic.
“I went out and did a qualifying sim on our first run and did a mid-221 and I repeated it yesterday so we haven’t been overly concerned about qualifying,” said Rahal. “We should be decent but some of the speeds I saw today, Power did four laps in a row at 223, I feel like from what I saw of his teammates, he’s maybe mile and a half or two miles an hour clear of his teammates. He’s kind of extreme. I don’t know that we have that. But we should be decent.”
Tony Kanaan continued to have a good week in his AJ Foyt ABC Supply Chevy. He was second Thursday at 225.896mph after turning the quickest no-tow lap on Wednesday.
“We unloaded pretty quick since the test,” said the 2013 Indy winner. “Now it’s more about trying to figure out what you’re going to need in 10 days, and it’s quite hard to know what the weather is going to do, so we’re trying to run in any type of weather.
“But from tomorrow on, you’ll be making the car as fast as you can for qualifying.”
Andretti was third best Thursday at 225.584mph in his Andretti Autosport Honda, followed by Ed Carpenter at 225.093mph in the Fuzzy’s Chevy and Sage Karam at 224.920mph in the Dreyer & Reinbold Chevy.
“A lot of guys were out there running qualifying simulations and we didn’t do that today,” Karam said. “We really focused on the race car setup again. We struggled a little at first, but we made great changes at lunch time. We came back out and the car felt much better. We were able to mix it up with a lot of people out there.
Karam’s teammate for the month, J.R. Hildebrand, brought out the first semi-serious yellow of the week when he contacted the northwest short chute wall with about 25 minutes left in practice. He wiggled exiting Turn 3 in his SalesForce Chevy, slapped the wall and then hugged it into Turn 4.
“The car felt out of the ordinary,” said Hildebrand, whose car suffered damage to the front and rear wings. “I didn’t feel like I was losing the car at all. I thought for sure I could save the car, which why I’m a little confused on what happened. I did have enough warning to keep it under control. It felt like I had a wacky wheel of a shopping cart because the car kept wobbling a bit. But I’m fine and ready to go tomorrow.”
A total of 2,770 laps were turned Thursday, with everyone getting added boost for Friday’s final practice prior to qualifying.
