hybrid – Syndication Server

‘Encouraged’ Palou leads IndyCar hybrid test at IMS

In the morning, it was Santino Ferrucci atop the 11 drivers running at Friday’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway NTT IndyCar Series test, then it was Josef Newgarden who took the point, and in the end, it was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou who went to the front after producing a 224.342mph lap in the No. 10 Honda to lead the field at the close of the day-long outing, the first for IndyCar’s new hybrid-spec powertrain at the 2.5-mile oval.

Newgarden was second in the No. 2 Team Penske Chevy (223.973mph), and a surprise in third—Dale Coyne Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, who agreed to test the car 24 hours prior—in the No. 18 Honda (223.383mph).

Graham Rahal was fourth in the No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda (222.650mph), Marcus Ericsson was fifth in the No. 28 Andretti Global Honda (222.324mph), and Helio Castroneves was sixth in the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda (222.075mph).

Making his debut for Ed Carpenter Racing, Alexander Rossi was seventh in the No. 20 Chevy (220.504mph), ahead of Ferrucci in the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevy (220.149mph), Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly in the No. 78 Chevy (219.997mph), Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevy (219.955mph), and Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, who was 11th and last in the No. 5 Chevy (219.566mph).

The energy recovery system, which adds 60hp on demand and a hike in weight with a 105-pound increase to the minimum weight of the Dallara DW12 chassis, was introduced at Mid-Ohio in July and made its long-awaited debut at the Speedway on Friday.

“It was good,” Palou told RACER. “It was a bit different with the hybrid. It was, in some areas, a little bit worse, obviously, just because of the weight. I think it’s a little bit tougher to get very close to the car in front. I’m not saying it’s impossible; like, you can overtake, but you can feel the car is a little bit heavier, and doesn’t love it when you lose some downforce.

“But on the same note, on the hybrid, it actually helps quite a lot. I think it made it quite fun to be in a group and to try and deploy in areas where you could see that they were not deploying, and then suddenly you get a big momentum and you can overtake. It’s testing. You never know if you have new tires and they have too-many-laps tires, and that’s why you feel super strong. So far, I think it was quite good.

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“Actually, it was very fun. On the team side, we just went through some ideas to try and get more speed. We know that we struggled this year with speed, so we were just trying to get a bit more to see if we can fight for the race win next year.”

Drivers used the paddles on their steering wheels to harvest energy with the fast-charging supercapacitor-based ERS on the straights—usually while in a tow—to get the extra 60hp to deploy at the time of their choosing.

“In qualifying, I think it’ll be tricky to know what we should do if we recharge and deploy every lap, or maybe we don’t recharge and just deploy like a little each lap so we don’t lose too much speed,” Palou said. “I think it’ll be interesting and I think everybody’s thinking the same thing; I don’t think anybody knows what to do yet.

“[The race could be] very easy. When you get a draft, if you cannot overtake, you can just recharge a little bit and then hopefully use it on exit. But if you’re leading, it’s very tough to recharge. I would say you can lose one mile an hour on average at the end of the lap if you’re recharging and not deploying. It’ll be tough to be leading and recharging without getting overtaken, which I think will make it interesting. It’ll be actually fun.

“It’s not dangerous like I think some people at the beginning were a bit concerned of — on a superspeedway going at 230mph and recharging a little bit — [no impact on safety at all]. Honestly, it’s not a huge deal. We recharge a lot, then you can feel it, but it’s not crazy. It’s not like lifting the foot out of the throttle.”

IndyCar’s newest three-time champion, polesitter at the 2023 Indy 500, says he didn’t notice the mechanical drag caused by the ERS on the engine’s acceleration down the long straights either.

“Obviously it’s not helping, but as a driver, you don’t really feel that,” Palou added. “It’s also very tough to say, because you don’t know which engine maps everybody’s running. Nobody’s running qualifying maps like we do in May, right? So the speeds were not amazing today. I expect the speeds next year to be a bit lower, just because we’re carrying more weight.

“It won’t be anything that people will notice a lot, or we will notice. We don’t feel slow. It still feels really, really fast, so maybe we lose, I don’t know, 0.5mph average for us, but it’s really small. I was encouraged a lot by the test, to be honest.”

IndyCar hybrid Speedway testing to begin

Six weeks after the Indianapolis 500 was held in May, the NTT IndyCar Series joined the world of hybrid racing. With the marriage of the series’ twin-turbo V6 motors and spec energy recovery systems becoming its new standard from July onwards, its teams have needed to get back to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and start the learning process around IMS with the new technology used from Mid-Ohio through Nashville.

IndyCar will have 11 teams in attendance – the 10 full-time entrants from 2024 plus the Indy-only Dreyer & Reinbold Racing outfit – on October 10-11 who will have the 60hp on-demand ERS units installed and a range of activities to work though on Thursday and Friday. Previous iterations of the hybrid package were tested on the 2.5-mile oval during its years-long development process, but this week’s outing marks the debut of the system in its as-raced configuration.

Beyond the educational items that will be gathered by the teams, the test will also give IndyCar its first accurate picture of how the weight of the ERS units, which add 105 pounds to the cars, and the mechanical drag produced by the ERS’s motor generator units, will affect lap speeds.

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Based on the results, IndyCar is expected to decide whether changes should be made in peak power output from the Chevy and Honda internal combustion engines and/or an adjustment to the maximum power from the ERS units—and a possible increase in deployment time—to counteract any performance losses. No new aerodynamic components will be included in the test, but Firestone will have a range of new tire compounds and constructions to be evaluated during the visit.

Thursday’s schedule starts with a three-hour window for Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel to complete his Rookie Orientation Program from 9am-12pm. Siegel went through ROP earlier in the year with Dale Coyne Racing, but after failing to qualify, the 19-year-old needs to go through the process once more ahead of next year’s event.

Once Siegel is finished, IndyCar will make use of the rest of the day as it runs through its fact-finding hybrid mission with Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden from 1-5pm.

Friday’s running from 10am to 12pm and 1-5pm is reserved for the 11 teams to use the track as desired, led by AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, Andretti’s Ericsson, Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, Ganassi’s Palou, a driver that’s yet to be named for Dale Coyne Racing, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly, Meyer Shank Racing’s Helio Castroneves, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal, and Penske’s Newgarden.

Brown’s first taste of hybrid IndyCars is profoundly positive

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown arrived at the circuit Saturday morning and got his first look at the NTT IndyCar Series’ new hybrid powertrains in action during practice and qualifying for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto event. With years of …

With years of experience leading the hybrid-powered McLaren Formula 1 team, Brown offered a fresh take on the unique energy recovery systems carried in the bellhousings that add power, weight, and newfound relevance to IndyCar’s chassis and engine formula as it competes in its 13th season.

“Given everyone’s concerns, I’m pleasantly surprised,” Brown told RACER. “I am a big advocate of updating our technology, chassis, engines, etc., and you go talk to any manufacturer, and they are very bullish on hybrids. I would even say, from my visit last month to the 24 Hours of Le Mans (where nine manufacturers compete with hybrids), that they’re more bullish on hybrid than electric.

“In our quest to make sure that we modernize IndyCar’s technology, that includes the chassis and a hybrid power unit. I think one could argue it was long overdue and I’m thankful it’s here. [I’m] pleased that there’s been very few technical issues now that it’s gotten started.”

In the two weeks since IndyCar brought its hybrids forward to race at Mid-Ohio, complaints about the on-track product, namely in reduced passing, have been shared by some fans and members of the paddock. While entirely valid, despite the Iowa doubleheader’s processional races being mostly due to a mismatch in track surface grip and tire degradation, Brown says the purpose for hybridization was never driven by entertainment.

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“I don’t think the hybrid has changed the racing for good or bad, but what it has done is made the technology that we’re using more relevant, more appealing to manufacturers,” he added. “I’m not sure it was ever intended to make the racing better or worse. It was intended to modernize the marketing message and be current in today’s more sustainable world.”

Sunday’s 85-lap contest will deliver more data on how the hybrid-spec IndyCar formula performs in yet another change of venue.

Its first street race will demand nimble handling on the low-grip city circuit, and as Brown looks to the future, his long-held desire for the Dallara DW12—in use since 2012—to be replaced by something new could come true as soon as 2027 when its successor will be designed from scratch as a hybrid.

“The fact that the cars are heavier now, that points to needing more modern race cars to take weight out,” he said. “Hybrid Formula 1 cars have gotten heavier and heavier and heavier and heavier. I think Formula 1 cars, people generally think are too big and too heavy, and that’s something that’s being addressed in the ‘26 rules.

“Yes, hybrids are heavier, but that’s why we’re working on a new chassis, and part of the brief will be to make the racing better, make the cars even safer, and make them lighter. That’s why we need a new IndyCar chassis, and they say a new chassis is coming.”

ERS activation issues roil IndyCar teams

The NTT IndyCar Series faced its share of troubles last weekend at Iowa Speedway in its attempts to remotely activate and deactivate the new energy recovery systems (ERS) carried in its field of Dallara DW12s. With rules in place that disallow …

With rules in place that disallow drivers from using the ERS units on pit lane to harvest or deploy power — and with another protocol implemented during qualifying for the Hy-Vee doubleheader that proved to be problematic where the units were turned on for most of the 27 drivers to harvest on their final warmup lap, but, due to a software glitch, not for drivers Jack Harvey and Colton Herta — Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward has a suggestion for the series.

“Just leave them on,” he told RACER. “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.”

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As IndyCar fans learned during April’s push-to-pass ordeal involving Team Penske, the series enables or disables the push-to-pass system on road and street courses from race control by sending signals through the timing and scoring beacons, which communicates through each car’s MyLaps transponder, and instructs the McLaren engine control unit to turn push-to-pass on or off.

The same system and method has been used during IndyCar’s mid-season move to hybridization where signals are sent through the beacons/MyLaps/ECU pathway to make the 60hp offered by the ERS available or unavailable to drivers based on their location on the track, or the structure of a session like oval qualifying.

From Ward’s viewpoint, IndyCar drivers are more than capable of working within the series’ ERS usage guidelines.

“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,” he reiterated. “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.”

Four overnight hybrid changes ahead of Iowa Race 2

The launch of the NTT IndyCar Series hybrid era has brought a range of new items to the championship, including a procedure that was put to use for the first time after Saturday night’s crash-filled 250-lap contest at Iowa Speedway. With the …

With the addition of the new Chevy- and Honda-built energy recovery systems inside the bellhousings that bridge the internal combustion engines and transmissions, the series has set an impact threshold for the ERS units, and with numerous crashes throughout the Hy-Vee Homefront 250, the 50G limit was exceeded by multiple cars in their clashes with walls, or each other.

Rule 15.2.5.3, which governs approved ERS changeouts, calls for the spec bellhousing supplied by Ilmor Engineering to be removed if a crash exceeds 50Gs, and while there’s no mandatory change required, a physical inspection of the ERS must be performed by Ilmor and a determination is then made as to whether the bellhousing can return to duty or if it needs to be replaced.

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The Chip Ganassi Racing team split Alex Palou’s crashed No. 10 Honda after the race for his ERS to be evaluated, and it was given the green light to go back for today’s 250-lapper. The same was true for Pietro Fittipaldi’s crashed No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda, whose ERS was, in IndyCar Medical parlance, “checked and released” and approved for competition.

The crashed No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy wasn’t as fortunate, and was given a replacement bellhousing and fresh ERS unit for today’s event. RLL’s Christian Lundgaard also received a new ERS package after his system overheated after his first-lap spin and stall, which led to heat soak and the need for cooling before the Dane could return to the race more than 20 laps later. And Juncos Hollinger Racing Agustin Canapino, who’s No. 78 Chevy was wrecked in the crash caused by David Malukas, has a new hybrid for the race.

The last ERS change, according to the series, is with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Linus Lundqvist, whose No. 8 Honda ground to a halt late in the race. RACER understands the Swede’s ERS unit stopped working, and with its motor generator unit connected to the same input shaft that sends power from the turbo V6 motors to the transmission, a failure of any sorts with the ERS tends to come with a need to stop the car.

IndyCar’s curfew for the garages on Saturday night was 11pm, giving teams little more than 90 minutes to affect repairs. Many of the teams, including those who needed to pull and possibly replace bellhousings, tell RACER they were there past 3am ET, and returned hours later to prepare for the 12:30pm green flag.

Heat management is the next test for IndyCar’s hybrid at Iowa

After delivering a nearly flawless introduction of its Chevy- and Honda-built energy recovery systems (ERS) last weekend at Mid-Ohio, the next big test for the NTT IndyCar Series’ hybrid powertrains happens this weekend at Iowa Speedway where …

The challenge posed to the ERS units will come from the unrelenting heat each of the 27 hybrids will face as most of the 250-lap nighttime race will start with ambient temperature close to 90F and taper off to the low 80s by the checkered flag. While the high midwestern heat and humidity are a significant factor, the compact track with short straights and near-constant action around the circuit means most drivers will be unable to run in clean air for long stretches to cool the ERS.

Friday’s 90-minute practice session, run in the mid-80s, provided encouraging results for heat management with the ERS units, but few drivers were able to complete full-stint distances to push the systems to their limits. According to three team managers or technical directors who spoke with RACER ahead of Saturday’s first race of the Hy-Vee Doubleheaders, confidence is high with the ERS package and its ability to function in significant heat Saturday night. The temperatures will rise again on Sunday when most of the 250-lap second race is expected to be held at over 90F, which will pose another test to the impressive reliability delivered by the units at their first outing.

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Where there’s a positive outlook on how the ERS units will fare in green racing conditions, the team leaders were also hopeful for the races to be completed without red flags. With air moving through the ERS unit’s radiator, the system should be OK, but there’s a fear of what might happen if the race is stopped and the cars are forced to sit on pit lane for a long period where heat soak could have a negative effect on the ERS.

Teams are allowed to place electric air blowers into the right sidepod to assist in cooling the radiator, but depending on the length of a red flag in high heat, ERS temperatures could become an item to actively monitor.

Of the key learnings by the series after Mid-Ohio, one technical revision was mandated for Iowa within the spec bellhousing that carries the ERS units. Some teams reported that at the back of the bellhousings, where the DC-DC converter is mounted, its coolant bleed line and its electrical looms were coming in contact with the bellhousing and chafing, which led to the series requiring new shielding to be placed over the line and looms.

Stalling was another issue that arose for some drivers—more than usual—at Mid-Ohio. Among those who’ve spoken to RACER about the matter, the majority pointed to a need to gain more familiarity with the different feel to the clutch release with the ERS’s motor generator unit spinning on the same input shaft.

Many drivers were seen leaving their pit boxes on Friday with more revs applied from the engine and a less aggressive release of the hand-clutch lever—almost a two-stage exit—to ensure they didn’t stall the engine.

Successful start for IndyCar hybrids

The NTT IndyCar Series had a 92.6-percent success rate with its brand-new hybrids on debut at Mid-Ohio. It’s an impressive figure to consider for the mid-season introduction of the Chevy- and Honda-built energy recovery systems, and in a perfect …

In a closely-fought battle between the two brands, Honda led 53 of the 80-lap race with polesitter Alex Palou and Chevy took 27 combined laps between Pato O’Ward and Scott McLaughlin. It was the 24 laps delivered in the lead to close the race by O’Ward that gave General Motors the honor of becoming IndyCar’s first engine manufacturer to win a hybrid race.

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“What an exciting race today at Mid-Ohio! Congratulations to Pato O’Ward, Gavin Ward and the entire No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team on their outstanding win. Pato drove a skilled, patient race while his crew executed flawlessly on pit lane. It was a true team win,” said Mark Stielow, GM’s motorsports director.

“There were great battles throughout the field. With Scott McLaughlin bringing the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet to the finish in third, it is very rewarding for everyone on the Chevrolet engineering side along with our teams who have all put in countless hours to reach today’s race to have two drivers on the podium for debut of the IndyCar hybrid power unit.”

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon was the only driver to encounter a heavily impactful hybrid-related problem in the package’s first appearance in competition; after the race, Rinus Veekay’s No. 21 Chevy was also reported to have charging issues on his way to 19th. The fact that 25 of the 27 energy recovery systems are believed to have worked as intended was a great demonstration of reliability for a project that was launched and overseen by IndyCar president Jay Frye and his technical team, plus both auto brands, and chassis supplier Dallara.

“The performance of the new IndyCar hybrid power unit at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was impactful and highly encouraging,” a statement from the series read. “All stakeholders in the IndyCar paddock share in the pride and excitement for the future that this milestone has generated. It is the result of a truly unique collaboration between Chevrolet and Honda and the culmination of hundreds of hours of engineering, preparation, testing and execution.

“IndyCar looks forward to the continued evolution of the hybrid power unit as teams and drivers fine-tune the system to optimize performance beginning with the first use of horsepower assist on an oval next weekend at Iowa Speedway.”

The ERS unit had another first in the Mid-Ohio race when Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean spun and stalled his No. 77 Chevy late in the contest. The Swiss-born Frenchman was able to use the ERS to start the car on his own and pull away without the need for IndyCar to call for a caution and dispatch the AMR Safety Team to resolve the matter.

RACER’s inside look at IndyCar going hybrid, part 2

The NTT IndyCar Series’ midseason shift to hybrid electric powertrains is its biggest technological change since it introduced turbocharged V6 engines in 2012. There’s a lot to try and understand in the changeover that starts this weekend in …

With 65 total Q&A topics to cover, we’ve done Part 1 on the background basics of the energy recovery systems (ERS), and here, we’re running the rest — on a wide range of subjects — if you’re interested in IndyCar’s new hybrid direction.

WILL THE FOUR TEAMS THAT DID MOST OF THE HYBRID TESTING HAVE AN ADVANTAGE?

They should. Frankly, it would be a shock (bad pun alert) if Andretti Global, Arrow McLaren, Chip Ganassi Racing, and Team Penske don’t have a big advantage over the other six teams who’ve done minimal hybrid running by comparison.

And to be fair, hybrid or not, those are also the four teams that win almost every race, especially Ganassi and Penske who did more than anyone, which is why they were chosen by their respective engine suppliers to handle each manufacturer’s ERS testing.

WHY DIDN’T THEY SPREAD THE MAJORITY OF TESTING EQUALLY ACROSS ALL 10 TEAMS?

Because that wouldn’t have gotten the series to going hybrid this weekend. The other six teams were brought into testing once the “final spec” ERS unit was produced. It wasn’t great, but it was by design.

Nike doesn’t develop a new basketball shoe with an NBA player who comes off the bench and scores five points a game. They work with the superstars to develop the best shoe possible before it’s made available to the rest of the players. Same approach here.

IS THERE ANYTHING ON THE CARS THAT WILL INDICATE WHEN THE ERS UNITS ARE FUNCTIONING?

Nope. If you’re familiar with Formula 1 and its hybrid engines, that series uses the lights on the back of the cars to tell drivers and fans when harvesting is being done. Those lights are instructed to flash. In IndyCar, at least for the half-season ahead, the cars won’t tell you when hybrid running is happening.

SO HOW WILL WE KNOW WHEN DRIVERS ARE HARVESTING OR DEPLOYING?

Well, if you’re at the track and watching the cars go by, there’s nothing to alert you to the ERS units being active. But if you look away from the cars and stare at your phone or tablet, there will be notifications available on the TV broadcasts, and via the IndyCar app.

If you’re watching from home, it should be easy to track. If you’re trackside, it will require looking away from what’s in front of you to know when hybridization is happening.

And be ready to see the usage alerts on the app or on NBC/USA/Peacock pop up and disappear in a flash. More on the why, later.

ARE THE ERS UNITS RELIABLE?

There have been some ERS failures in testing with the final-spec units, but they’ve often been down to user error. There’s a new and more complex process involved with starting the cars where the ERS need to be set to a certain state before the MGU is meant to be spun. If, for example, a team wants to plug the external starter in and bump the ICE once or twice with the ignition off to check something, they can’t forget to go through the process to wake up and ready the ERS because rotating the MGU without waking it up — it’s on the same shaft that spins the ICE — will break the MGU.

And if that happens, the car needs to be split at the back of the ICE and the spec bellhousing/ERS unit needs to be changed. FWIW, it’s already happened.

But outside of that, the new ERS units have done more than 20,000 laps and over 32,000 miles of testing, and most of it has been positive. Using recent history as a guide, there’s a reason to have optimism for what’s about to happen over 80 laps on Sunday.

Fast getaways won’t be because of ERS. Josh Tons/Motorsport Images

CAN DRIVERS USE THE ENERGY RECOVERY SYSTEM TO START THEIR CARS?

Yes. Will they? Only on rare occasions.

A driver’s ability to use the ERS to fire the internal combustion engines (ICE) is only available when something bad has happened out on the circuit, like spinning and stalling.

SO DRIVERS CAN START THEIR CARS, BUT IT’S LIMITED TO WHEN THEY’RE ON TRACK?

Correct. If you’ve seen and loved the sights and sounds of IMSA’s hybrid GTP cars pulling away from their pit boxes on full EV power for a few seconds before firing up the ICE to take them the rest of the way out…that won’t be happening here.

IndyCar has opted to introduce hybridization in a way that places a lower usage of the system during the half-season ahead. Specifically, the series wants to place as little strain on the MGUs as possible when they aren’t being used on track, and as such, you’ll see mechanics continue to plug in external starters and fire the engines on pit lane and on the starting grid just as they have for decades.

The dawn of IndyCar’s hybrid era will indeed begin with crew members manually starting the cars Friday afternoon…which is interesting.

As well, self-starting while practicing, qualifying, or racing, is limited to road and street courses. Self-starting will be disabled by the series on the ovals.

IF THEY CAN’T LEAVE THE BOX ON EV POWER, WILL DRIVERS USE THE ERS UNITS ELSEWHERE ON PIT LANE?

No, they will not.

Drivers won’t be allowed to enter into pit lane on ERS power, do an EV burnout and launch from their pit box, or use ERS power after they’ve left the box, nor will drivers be allowed to harvest energy while on pit lane. In simple terms, from pit-in to pit-out, IndyCar’s ERS units will be unavailable for use.

The series will manage this by sending signals to the cars from race control, using the same MyLaps communications system that it uses to turn push-to-pass on and off, that tells the same McLaren-TAG 400i engine control unit (ECU) to disable the ERS unit when cars cross the pit-in timing loop, then to enable the ERS when cars cross the pit-out timing loop.

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IndyCar vs IMSA GTP hybrids: The cars and components

RACER’s Marshall Pruett breaks down the similarities and differences between IndyCar’s new supercapacitor-based hybrids and IMSA’s lithium-ion-based hybrid GTPs with a first installment focused on the cars and components.

RACER’s inside look at IndyCar going hybrid, part 1

With upwards of 50 Q&A topics to cover, we’ll break them into a multi-part feature starting with some of the background and basics and follow with one or more installments that just might be of use if you’re interested in IndyCar’s new hybrid direction.

WHAT’S THE HISTORY? HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO GET HERE WITH INDYCAR GOING HYBRID?

The abridged version of the story starts with the announcement about going hybrid being made on Aug. 1, 2019. COVID delivered some huge setbacks in 2020 and 2021, and again in 2022 — often of the supply chain variety — but the series’ original vendor for the project also dropped the ball, which brought the initiative back to zero and forced a complete reboot.

Late in 2022, longstanding IndyCar engine suppliers Chevy and Honda took over the project to keep it from failing. To do so, they made big financial and personnel investments by rerouting their new 2.4-liter IndyCar engine development budgets to fund the project. And in doing so, they saved the hybridization initiative and got the project to a place where a heavily revised energy recovery system (ERS) concept was testing late in the summer of 2023.

Some new ERS issues emerged towards the end of the year, so the plan to go hybrid at the start of the 2024 season was pushed back. More testing followed with a “final spec” version of the technology that would allow IndyCar to become hybrid, and with newfound confidence that everything was on the right track, the series declared in May that it would cross the hybrid threshold in competition at this weekend’s July 5-7 race at Mid-Ohio.

It will end up being a long gestation period — four years, 11 months, and six days — from the project receiving the public green light to seeing the green flag wave over the field of hybrids on Sunday at the Honda Indy 200, but it’s finally happening through the resilience, expenditures, and sacrifice of some great people and companies.

SO, WHAT’S THE THING CALLED? DOES IT HAVE A NAME?

IndyCar’s new ERS does not have a custom name. But while we were chatting at the Speedway in May, IndyCar communications VP Dave Furst nicknamed it “Harry the Hybrid,” which I loved, so that’s what I’m going with: Harry the Hybrid.

IT’S ALSO BEING CALLED A “HYBRID SYSTEM” AND A “HYBRID UNIT”?

Yes. There’s the ICE and the ERS, and together, they become a hybrid powertrain, but there’s no such thing as a “hybrid system” or “hybrid unit.” Here, hybrid just means two different types of motors working together.

Even so, lots of people in racing just refer to the whole thing as a “hybrid system” or whatever because it’s easier than saying “energy recovery system” or “ERS,” I guess.

So…just go with hybrid system or hybrid unit. (And forgive me in the coming days when I give up and go with it as well.)

THE ERS IS NEW. WHAT ABOUT THE ICE?

Nope. The ERS is indeed brand-new, but the ICE is the same 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 formula IndyCar has kept since 2012.

The ICEs Chevy and Honda just used in the cars at the June 23 race at Laguna Seca are the same for this weekend in Mid-Ohio and for years to come. Only the ERS side is new and being added to the cars.

WHO MAKES IT?

If we stick to the main items of interest in the package, it’s Chevrolet and Ilmor Engineering and Empel responsible for one half, Honda and Honda Racing Corporation US and Skeleton and BrightLoop for the other, plus Dallara, with IndyCar’s technical team overseeing all aspects of the ERS and setting the hybrid regulations.

All the new hybrid components have been been incorporated into the cars alongside the existing V6 engines. Joe Skibinski/IMS Photo

WHAT ARE THE MAIN COMPONENTS IN THE ERS PACKAGE?

There’s an electric motor, the motor generator unit — the MGU — that connects to the ICE and the transmission and spins up to 13,000 rpm. The MGU both charges an energy bank and takes the energy back and helps to accelerate the car. It’s made by Empel under the direction of Chevy and Ilmor.

Its ERS partner is the energy storage system — the ESS — which receives, holds and returns the electrical energy the MGU makes. HRC US assembles the ESS using 20 supercapacitors supplied in each unit by Skeleton.

As part of the ESS package, BrightLoop makes the DC-DC converter, which is a small device that regulates voltage.

The DW12’s pre-existing engine control unit (ECU), the McLaren-TAG 400i that runs the turbo V6s, has also been tasked with controlling all aspects of how the ERS units function and perform.

The last significant item in the loop is the steering wheel, which is custom to each driver, and has levers and buttons the drivers use to instruct the ERS to capture energy or turn that energy into horsepower and torque.

The MGU is set to give drivers an extra 60 hp and 33.2 lb-ft of torque to go with the 700-plus hp the ICEs offer. The ESS can hold a maximum of 320 kilojoules, which is a measurement of energy. The ESS is set to have a maximum output of 60 volts and 2000 amps.

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