Colton Herta’s quick thinking saved the Andretti Global driver from losing a significant amount of time when he stalled the engine on Sunday at Portland. It also opened an interesting conversation within the NTT IndyCar Series that will lead to changes.
Herta’s final pit stop was going according to plan until his engine coughed and died as he attempted to pull away in the No. 26 Honda. Running fourth and in contention for a podium finish, the stalled engine could have ruined his chances to hold onto a strong result.
But thanks to his fast hands, Herta reached for the switch on the bulkhead that instructs the energy recovery system — the motor generator unit, specifically — to spin the Honda’s crankshaft and fire the 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 engine and launch from his pit box before the No. 26 crew were able to manually start its Honda.
Unfortunately for Herta, flicking the self-starting switch into the upward position while on pit lane is not allowed.
The disallowance of ERS use in any capacity on pit lane, from harvesting energy to starting the car to operating in full electric mode, is governed by two rules, and Herta’s infraction was covered by the second, Rule 14.23.1.8 published prior to the first hybrid race at Mid-Ohio in July, which states, “Hybrid engine start use on Pit Lane is not allowed at any time without prior approval from IndyCar. External starters only.”
Having spotted the illegal self-starting, IndyCar penalized Herta and ordered him to surrender track position to the car that was behind him — a lapped car — which was the equivalent of forfeiting approximately five seconds, which is the estimated time savings from using the MGU instead of waiting for a crew member to plug the external starter into the car and run through the manual process.
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After the race, Herta said he didn’t know Rule 14.23.1.8 existed.
“We had a little bit of a moment in pit lane where I must’ve just slipped the clutch a little too quick and the car just died right there,” he said. “Then, I wasn’t aware that you couldn’t start the car on pit lane, so we picked up a little bit of a time penalty and had to drop back.”
In speaking with a few other drivers after the race, there was a general sense of confusion and surprise at what Herta was able to do; most were unaware that it was possible to start their own cars while on pit lane.
At the first hybrid event in Mid-Ohio and the second at the Iowa doubleheader, IndyCar’s race control team was busy remotely deactivating and activating the ERS units as drivers entered and departed pit lane. As with race control’s ability to turn the push-to-pass system on and off through signals sent to the cars through the MyLaps timing system, the stewards use the same MyLaps communication pathway to take ERS usage away when drivers reach the pit-in line and give usage back once they cross the pit-out line.
Qualifying at Iowa brought this practice into the spotlight as repeated communications problems led to everyone from Herta to Dale Coyne Racing’s Jack Harvey make qualifying attempts without their ERS units being activated via race control.
As Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward told RACER afterwards, “Just leave them on. They’ve been causing more issues than they need to by the complexity of when the system can be used or not, and that’s based on them enabling it from the timing and scoring and pit lane beacons. The disabling or enabling it has caused some issues at recent events, and my opinion is there’s not really any reason why they need to switch it off. And if you don’t want to let people start their cars with it in pit lane, then people will just use (external) starters like we already have been.
“I think they’re worried that drivers are going to be trying to use it on pit lane, looking at the dash, or be distracted by something while they’re driving down pit lane. Well, they’ve got to manage hundreds of horsepower from their engine already and do a lot of complex things extremely well, so I think they can trust them to just be sensible to not use it when they aren’t meant to. And if they do, that’s where penalties become available.”
Following the feedback from Ward and others in the paddock, IndyCar listened and stopped its practice of turning the units on and off. And in the case of Herta, during the first few hybrid IndyCar races, he would have reached for the switch on pit lane and found no response from the MGU.
But with the call to leave the ERS units on at all times, the Andretti driver was able to flip the switch, start his car, motor away, and incur a modest, corrective penalty.
As one enterprising team owner told RACER after the checkered flag, if the only downside to circumventing the rules with a stall on pit lane and going the self-starting route is giving up one position, teams will happily break the rule and serve the penalty, which could save time compared to sitting and waiting for the crew to get the external starter over the wall and connected to the gearbox.
IndyCar’s rule against self-starting was written for the sake of crew member safety to ensure all crew members are in control of and aware of their car’s ability to leave the pit box. But in the coming days and months, look for something different than giving up one position as Herta was ordered to do by race control.
A change from giving up any positions gained by illegal self-starting to a harsher drive-through penalty would be an appropriate escalation that would discourage wanton ignoring of the rule. And if IndyCar were to go in the opposite direction next year —with a half-season of familiarity of the hybrids and their capabilities by pit crews — an allowance of self-starting could also be on the post-season docket for consideration by the series.