ARE THERE NO MEANS WHATSOEVER FOR DRIVERS TO DEAL WITH ERS-INSPIRED BRAKING INSTABILITY?
There’s nothing they can do electronically to the brakes, but in another cool development, there are harvesting maps loaded into the ECU that drivers can use through the turning of rotary knobs on the steering wheel and selecting the map that’s best for the situation. That’s what teams and manufacturers have been doing aplenty to develop in testing.
It takes a moment to turn one rotary to activate the harvesting maps, and then turn the other rotary to the map you want, but a ton of work has gone into giving drivers some wiggle room to reduce how aggressively the MGU does its harvesting.
THERE’S ANOTHER IMPORTANT THING FOR DRIVERS TO CONSIDER BEFORE BRAKING, RIGHT?
That’s for certain sure!
When the balance is right, drivers need to arrive at important braking zones with the ESS at less than a 100-percent charge.
Referring back to how the MGU helps to slow the car while harvesting under braking, it won’t perform that job if the ESS is full. It’s an obvious thing to say, but if the ESS is completely charged, there’s nothing for the MGU to do in the brake zone.
So in order to reap the benefit of using the MGU to improve braking performance, the driver must remember to arrive in the brake zone with an ESS that can accept a charge.
Show up at the end of a long straight with a 100-percent full ESS, and don’t be surprised if you’re being passed by someone who arrived with 80 percent.
HOW MUCH DOES THE ERS PACKAGE COST?
According to some teams, IndyCar has set the 2024 lease price for the partial season of use at approximately $90,000, but I couldn’t get an exact number. The full-season lease in 2025 is expected to be around $200,000.
WHO’S HANDLING THE ASSEMBLY, MAINTENANCE, AND SERVICING OF THE ERS UNITS?
That’s Ilmor Engineering, the Michigan-based company that’s celebrating its 40th year in business which also supplies Chevy with its championship- and Indy 500-winning 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 ICEs.
An Ilmor transporter carries the units in custom rolling crates, and once they’re received by the teams, those teams are not allowed to modify or manipulate the ERS package inside the bellhousings in any way.
If there are issues that emerge with the ERS, an Ilmor technician will be called to troubleshoot and resolve the problem — fix the matter, if possible, or trigger the spec ERS bellhousing replacement process with IndyCar if needed — in whatever manner is required.
WHAT HAPPENS IF SOMETHING INSIDE THE BELLHOUSING BREAKS?
Look for that process to mirror what happens when a Chevy or Honda engine malfunctions. The spec ERS bellhousing will go back to Ilmor’s Michigan base, undergo a full post-mortem, receive the necessary solutions to get it running again, and be returned to the pool of available inventory at an upcoming race.
It’s also worth noting that in the hybrid operations manual distributed to each team, there are a number of reminders about the expected care and use practices for the ERS units and how straying from those procedures could lead to failures and the costs of those failures being the responsibility of the team(s) in question.
Do as the manual says to do, and you’ll be fine and the replacement will fall within the annual lease price, or ignore the manual and be prepared to pay for it.
LIKE WITH THE V6 TURBO ENGINES, DO TEAMS GET A GRID PENALTY WITH AN UNAPPROVED ERS UNIT CHANGE?
Yes. The difference here is the new hybrid regulations give some latitude.
Teams get four ICEs from Chevy or Honda in their annual engine lease contracts, and if an entry goes over that number, it receives a grid penalty of nine positions on ovals and six on road and streets. It could be the manufacturer’s fault entirely, but if a car needs a fifth ICE, for whatever reason, it gets a penalty, and again with a sixth, and so on.
With the ERS units in this opening half-season of use, a failure and the need to go to a replacement won’t come with a penalty. I’d consider this to be a trial period while the series gets a feel for how truly reliable the ERS units will be in competition. If they’re good, the rules just might change in the future.
The only way an entrant gets an ERS grid penalty, which is the same 9/6 as the ICE, is if they request for the ERS to be changed, which could come as a result of user error. Here’s some of what the series wrote in the regulations:
Entrant Abuse – A Hybrid may be damaged by the actions of the Entrant, including but not limited to on-track incidents, the use of non-approved fluids, and continuing to operate the Hybrid outside of the limits outlined in the Operational Guidelines and Event Notes.
Changing a Hybrid before the Change-Out Mileage for Entrant Abuse is subject to the following: Entrant pays for the Hybrid’s repair costs, including parts, labor, shipping, and travel costs for the Hybrid Manufacturer and INDYCAR personnel.
HOW ARE THE ERS UNITS DISTRIBUTED?
From an administrative perspective, that’s done by IndyCar in the same way they distribute the Chevy and Honda internal combustion engines: Randomly.
Just as IndyCar picks from the available pool of turbo V6 motors — say Honda engine serial No. 42 — and tells HRC US to present it to Dale Coyne Racing for use in its No. 18 car, IndyCar will instruct Ilmor to dispatch ERS unit serial No. XX to whatever team is in need.
HOW MANY ERS UNITS HAVE BEEN MADE?
I was told the initial production has resulted in just over 40 ERS bellhousings being readied and crated for delivery in May at the Indianapolis 500. I was also told during the preseason that the goal is to get closer to 60 ERS units made.
WHAT DOES THE SYSTEM WEIGH?
In isolation, the ESS, MGU, DC-DC converter, and the rest of the ERS package that fits in the Dallara bellhousing weighs 93.8 lbs. There’s a bit more weight to factor in, like the pump and hoses used to circulate coolant through the ESS and MGU, and the coolant itself, which is a gallon of fluid that adds about eight pounds, and the new and dedicated ERS radiator in the right sidepod that cools the fluid.
But for the main ERS components, it’s 93.8 lbs, and with everything fitted into and delivered in a crate from Ilmor, with the pump and hoses and accumulator tank affixed to the 32.8-pound Dallara bellhousing, the as-delivered assembly from Ilmor weighs 126.6 lbs.
WHAT DO TEAMS DO ONCE THEY GET THE SPEC BELLHOUSING FROM ILMOR?
They begin the fitment process by installing studs into the bellhousing that will hold the suspension mounts. They’ll also install dampers, and everything else that’s needed to outfit the bellhousing before attaching the transmission and bolting it to the back of the engine.
HOW DO YOU CHARGE THE ESS BEFORE A SESSION?
There’s a charger that teams can connect to the car that plugs into the wall, so that’s one way to charge the ESS. The MGU can also be told to charge the ESS while the ICE is being warmed up in the garages.
CAN TEAMS OR MANUFACTURERS WRITE THEIR OWN SOFTWARE TO CONTROL THE ERS UNITS?
No, they cannot. But look for that to change in the years ahead.
DOES THE ESS REPLACE THE ALTERNATOR?
It does not. In IMSA, its big ESS battery powers the entire car and deletes the use of a traditional alternator that comes with an ICE. In IndyCar, the existing ICEs will continue to use their alternators to support themselves.
WHAT IF THERE’S A BIG CRASH AND THE ERS IS BROKEN AND SPILLED OUT ONTO THE TRACK?
If IndyCar’s AMR Safety Team comes across an ESS that’s been split open, the ESS should short itself out and become inert. It could get hot, and we’ll probably see some white smoke, but is unlikely to shock anyone in the cleanup process.
WHAT IS “SOC” AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Here’s another hybrid term to get accustomed to, and it’s the acronym for State of Charge, which is often pronounced as “sock.” The SOC is what drivers will be actively managing with the ESS. My wife does this with her iPhone; she doesn’t like to let the battery get low, so she has it plugged into a charger most of the time. I doubt it’s gone below 80 percent since we got it.
In basic terms, that’s what IndyCar drivers will need to start monitoring with the ESS, and it’s not like they will never take the SOC down to its equivalent of being empty, but if they’re going to be using the ERS, they’ll need to track its SOC just like they track how much P2P is left and how much Shell fuel they have left.
The difference here, since IndyCar has its per-lap energy use maximum, is frequency of monitoring the SOC, which will be constant. Use and recharge. Use and recharge. Corner by corner, lap by lap.
And back to the “emergency” energy the ESS holds in case of a stall, the SOC in this ESS is between 30-60 volts. I’m also told the ESS can start a car with as little as 20v. But the key here with IndyCar’s SOC is the ESS isn’t an energy system that is configured to go from its full 60v down to 0v.
Drivers will be managing a SOC of 60-30v, which is their version of 100-0 percent.
I’M SURE THERE’S MORE…
…questions to be asked and answered, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten to cover some obvious items, but that’s about all I can think of and manage right now without having an MGU failure of my own.
If there’s more that come to mind, I might do a post-event follow-up in a Part 3, but let’s hope the 16 Q&A topics from Part 1 and the 49 delivered here have been useful and will make the transition to hybrids less of a mystery.