Q: When the IndyCar hybrid system is finally implemented, will the cars be able to roll off after a stall without having to be restarted? I don’t ever hear mention of this capability. From day one, this is all I have really cared about as it could eliminate some of the long cautions that happen on road courses.
Rick Navratil
MP: Hi, Rick, yes, that’s the plan. It’s been written about here in the Mailbag and in other RACER stories.
The only caveat is if the supercapacitor is nearly depleted of energy when the spin or stall happens. Can’t wind up the motor generator unit to start the car if there’s not enough juice in the supercap to wind it up.
Q: For everyone worried that any change to the engine specs/manufacturers/formula will bring with it the horrific and feared term Balance of Performance, a reminder:
IndyCar has already been there. Back in what’s widely described as “the good ol’ days” you could run an Offy, Cosworth, or Buick but your boost was limited to balance the performance of each. The Buick, being a pushrod engine, got a fat turbo allowance (to its eternal detriment in durability) yet always put up big numbers on pole day. That pushrod loophole in the rule book was big enough to drive a Mercedes through, though…
Maybe we old-guy IndyCar fans born in the ’60s or ’70s shouldn’t fear the idea of a new BoP. If it comes to that. I plan on watching IndyCar for life. F1 just isn’t racing, to me. Nothing much is, anymore, sadly.
Bill Bailey
MP: Thanks Bill, but BoP was never used back then. Engine type, displacement, boost, and weight was a common pick-’em solution in open-wheel, sports cars, and so on, but actual balancing of performance, where the sanctioning body actively dialed boost/weight/revs/etc up or down to make a Cosworth DFX equal to a Buick or a Judd or a Chevy, and so on, wasn’t done. If they had, the racing would have been much closer, but each era of IndyCar has its dominant engine from back in the day, and that wouldn’t have been possible if true BoP was employed. There were adjustments made, of course, but the old practice was more like a distant uncle to BoP than the grandfather of the process.
Q: What do you think about the Chili Bowl? 370 racers on an indoor dirt track. Racing all week long. Makes a lot of events seem tiny.
Pete Pfankuch, Wisconsin
MP: I’ve always wanted to go but haven’t made it happen yet. My friends who attend say it’s all kinds of awesome.
Q: Tell us what your crystal ball is for the next five-seven years of IndyCar.
In the near-term, would it simply make sense to start in 2025 and 2026 testing and adjusting the cars to the IMSA engine formula for 2027? Just start the process of what is needed to fit/accommodate these engines now? You can test the adjusted chassis/engine while still running the Honda and Chevy in the near-term for the next two seasons.
IndyCar would need to use a few chassis at different tracks for the engine testing. If this change was made there might need to be some sort of handicapping for power, but if all things were equal, it would be a matter of space, weight and aerodynamic profile. I would think some of that could be worked out over time. The weight might go up, but do IndyCar fans really care about the actual weight? No. They just want to see cars racing. I am sure balancing this all would require some testing for many variables, but if we are to keep the existing chassis and will need new engines, what really is the choice?
I think people are tired of the old chassis, but I also feel some aesthetics could be incrementally changed over time. The tub and aeroscreen are ugly, but it appears the same basic car will be in place for a while. Can Dallara not change small things over time? Maybe change the front and rear wing (loved the early 2000 IndyCar with the angled front wings, love the angled rear wings in Formula E) and maybe only changes to parts of the car one year at a time. The bodywork for the new engines could be a one-year change. If you keep the same car, make some incremental changes each year to change the look.
Finally, all NBC advertising should involve either high-speed slipping and sliding, some sort of elbow checking, loud, loud noise and some incidents. Get a huge social media presence that involves the drivers, personalities, the science of racing, feuds, etc… If IndyCar wants to garner new fans, get them smelling the bait in small bites. My kid knows all the MLB all-stars but does not watch games. He knows them in many small social media highlights. I’ve got to believe advertisers like eyeballs, no matter how they get these videos viewed.
Tim, Chicago
MP: All interesting thoughts, Tim, but there’s no “adjusting” of the DW12 to fit GTP motors without it costing a fortune. That’s why, as I’ve written ad nauseum, a new chassis would be needed if IndyCar went to an all-shapes-and-sizes engine formula.
Other than going hybrid, I have no idea where IndyCar is headed by the end of the decade because they don’t know and haven’t mapped out where they want to go.