Q: Please share the news of the passing of Dick Wallen since it is getting little coverage in the IndyCar racing world. Dick’s spectacular privately-published books and videos documented American open-wheel racing from the board track era up through the 1970s. I own three of his incredibly detailed books and would recommend them to anyone, particularly those who are interested in IndyCar’s Golden Era — 1950s through 1970s. His books and films are available on his Facebook page as well as from collectors on the internet.
J.P. Davis, Dunnellon, FL
MP: Thanks, J.P. I own plenty of Wallen’s books as well, and for those who are old enough to remember, ads in racing magazines and on the former SPEED Channel for his racing videos were a staple back in the day. One of the great archivists of American racing who will be missed.
Q: I know you will get a lot of questions about the FBI raid on RLL but I am curious about your take. First, is there a lot of “stealing” that goes on in the paddock?
Is this pettiness, because from the outside, clearly Michael doesn’t like Rahal? I just don’t think he would bring in the feds if it was Penske or Ganassi.
David Tucker
MP: IP theft happens every season in every professional series as personnel move from team to team. Hard to speak about Andretti’s motivation, but this has broken a cease fire accord of sorts — an informal one — because IndyCar teams could be calling the FBI on each other on a regular basis, but haven’t.
Andretti, with all of the Guggenheim/Group1001/Gainbridge money behind him, has become Mr. DGAF. He seems absolutely fearless, so who knows what else might be on the way.
Q: Just wondering if Malukas going to Foyt is to see if he has the potential to be Will Power’s replacement at Penske? I imagine Will has one or two more years in him before retirement.
Also, has there been any talk of Bottas coming to IndyCar? There was a recent quote where he said how competitive the series was. I’d love to see how he would do on an oval.
Jim Doyle, Hoboken, NJ
MP: Yes. As I’ve said a few times since the announcement, I’m convinced he’s signed to Penske and is being farmed to Foyt for a season or two to get the seasoning he lacks. Lots of conjecture about Bottas. Where does he fit in the pecking order of those who’ve never made an effort to race in IndyCar but have expressed an interest or said positive things about IndyCar while they face the possible end to their F1 careers? Meanwhile, Rinus VeeKay is ready to go to work tomorrow. Same with Linus Lundqvist. And Indy NXT champ Louis Foster. And others who’ve been here instead of elsewhere. I’d love to see Valtteri in a car, but not before those who’ve dedicated years of their lives to be in IndyCar.
Q: When I think about the small teams’ place in IndyCar, I’m reminded of a line from Moneyball. In the movie, Brad Pitt, playing A’s GM Billy Beane, says during an offseason meeting: “The problem we’re trying to solve is that there are rich teams, and there are poor teams. Then there’s 50 feet of crap, and then there’s us. It’s an unfair game.” IndyCar isn’t quite that extreme as small teams do still win from time to time, but we all know the big teams have a lot more cash and tend to win more overall.
Let me ask you this: You are the racing director of one of these smaller teams, about to start your off-season with limited resources. Where might you focus your time and development dollars strategically to gain an edge over the top teams? For example, could a smaller team find a way to better use emerging technologies like AI more effectively than the big guys?
Stu
MP: It’s all about people. I’m trying to hire an excellent assistant race engineer or performance engineer to join us and take the step up to race engineer, assuming my limited resources prevent me from hiring a well-known race engineer or technical director. I’m putting the money into hiring or promoting promising engineers to lead a damper R&D program, and the best I can find to lead our simulation program. So much of what you see take place at the track is achieved away from the track in the work and ideas and sim/bench testing that takes place, and that’s where the competition wars are usually won. There are software tools that can help them, no doubt, but it’s people and their creativity and/or experience that make the greatest difference. I hope that never changes.
Q: Now that the IndyCar 2024 season is over, I was hoping that maybe you’d know more about Harry the Hybrid. So, here’s another round of questions on the topic.
When F1 introduced KERS from 2009 to 2013, it delivered 80hp or 60kW, had a 400kJ battery and was therefore usable for up to 400/60 = 6.7 seconds per lap. By way of comparison, today’s IndyCar hybrid system provides 60hp or 45kW, gives a maximum of 320kJ per lap and discharges in 4.5 seconds. However, 320kJ/45kW makes 7.1 seconds. So, why is the actual discharge duration that much shorter? Is the MGU power delivery non-constant?
Also, F1’s old KERS weighed 35-40 kg (77-88 lbs), whereas Harry the Hybrid weights a whopping 135lbs (61kg). What makes the latter so heavy compared to the former? Where does the extra weight come from? Is it the MGU? And if supercapacitors were picked over a conventional battery because of their lighter weight, how come they basically weight as much as the MGU?
Now, I always like to submit a few ideas when writing to the Mailbag. So, do you think any of the following is feasible?
First, if the only solution to the overweight issue is a new chassis, which isn’t coming before 2027 at earliest, and if the current MGU was designed to deliver up to 150 hp, how about making a smaller MGU that only delivers 50 hp (or whatever amount of power the current turbocharger P2P gives)? Couldn’t that help trim some of the weight? If so, and if IndyCar still wants to eventually use the 150hp one, let’s keep it for the new car and use the 50hp one in the meantime.
Second, in order to make the hybrid system something that really makes a difference in lap time, could it be possible, when defining the amount of energy that can be used every lap, to go above the ESS total capacity, allowing for multiple complete charges and discharges? With the current capacity being 320kJ, how about bringing it up to, for example, 500kJ at Portland and 800kJ at Road America? And for ovals, where less than 320kJ per lap gets used, would it be possible to remove some of the capacitors, just to gain a little bit of weight?
Xavier
MP: Keep in mind that with the mandate to save about 30 percent of the battery for refiring a stalled car, Harry the Hybrid never fully deploys all of its energy in competition. I’ll let you do the math to see how that jives with kilojoule/kilowatt max and mins and deployment times.
I don’t have specifics on old F1 ERS vs new IndyCar ERs, other than to say the F1 models were bespoke, had unlimited budgets to develop and miniaturize and lighten, and IndyCar’s did not have any of those things. The supercapacitors were chosen because there was no pre-existing place within the 2012 Dallara DW12 chassis to fit a lithium-ion battery, and due to their comparatively compact size, an array of 21 supercaps could be stuffed into the bellhousing above the MGU. The MGU was also designed to deliver more than 100hp if asked, which meant sizing it to meet the future output goals.
It’s possible to go beyond the first-season limits, for sure, which were put in place in the name of reliability.