On Wednesday, Indycar will announce its ‘Future Car Strategy’ – the chassis and aerodynamic part of its 2012 formula. Indycar CEO Randy Bernard’s ‘Iconic’ committee will cast its final vote that morning and Bernard will reveal the decision just after noon at the Museum of Art in Indianapolis. Meanwhile the drivers have made it clear what they would prefer from the new car and engine combination.
Most drivers want more power, certainly on road and street circuits, and a car much like the old CART or Champ Cars that produced most of their downforce from the underwing. They would prefer a car with small external wings that could run more closely to the car in front, allowing more passing – aided by the boost from the new turbocharged engines agreed to last month.
“They’ve got to have 750 horsepower-plus,” says championship leader Will Power. “That’ll make the racing better because it’ll be harder to drive and the cars will look more spectacular. It also mean the tyres will go off [sooner].”
Scott Dixon believes a substantially bigger push-to-pass power boost will be available with a turbocharged engine. “I think the idea is to have a push-to-pass with the turbo that actually gives you a large amount of power, kinda like Champ Car did,” says Dixon. “So that could make for more passing. For me, the car needs to be a ton lighter. The current car is a bit of a heavy thing. Being a lot lighter will make it safer too because you won’t hit the wall as hard.”
Dixon also wants to see more freedom in the aero rules. “Adjustability is the key,” he says. “All this specifying of the wing angle is just wrong. There needs to be room in the rules for adjustability so different drivers and teams are able to run different strategies.”
Everyone agrees on this point, Dario Franchitti included: “You’ve got to have room for adjustment, so if you want to put downforce on you can or if you want to run lighter downforce you can. We’ll be able to do that if we have more power as we’re supposed to.”
Will Power remains a fan of the Panoz DP01 he raced in 2007, Champ Car’s last year. The DP01 produced most of its downforce from the underwing and had much smaller external wings than the current Dallara. “We had pretty good racing with the Panoz,” says Power. “To me, they need to develop a lot more downforce from the floor and have smaller wings like the Panoz. The most turbulent air comes from the wings, and the bigger the wings, the more turbulent the air.”
Franchitti emphasized that it’s difficult to create a package that works well on Indycar’s wide range of tracks. “It’s tough to make a car that works on road and street courses, and on the one-and-a-half-mile tracks and short ovals and at Indianapolis too. You’ve got all these different combinations which have different requirements. It’s not an easy decision. I suppose it depends as well on is it going to be just one chassis or are they going to open it up? If they open it up to multiple chassis that will change things.”
On Wednesday, the concept of the Indycar of the future will be revealed. Next comes the devilish detail, determining the car’s specifics and writing a workable, equitable rulebook. Wednesday’s announcement is the next step in Randy Bernard’s giant mission to recreate and rebuild Indycar racing.
cool, so we’re going back to what we had in the beginning? so after breaking away from champ cars because he thought the formula was all wrong tony has leapt off the ship then spent every single day trying desperately to swim back towards it.
It’s heartbreaking to see a great single seater formula destroyed on ‘ideological’ grounds only to have that ideology thrown in the bin whilst you frantically try to copy the exact formula you were so desperate to get away from.
But with a quarter the audience and money.
Anyway, if we can get back to the product we had 15 years ago i’m not going to complain but really, the man deserves a good hard kicking.
I never was a fan of the Panoz car. It looked like a junior formula machine.
They need to look at the Lolas, Reynards, and Swifts from the late Nineties for inspiration. Those cars were distinctive, beautiful, and wonderful to see and hear.
Thanks a bunch Autosport.com for illustrating the announcement with a picture of that ugly Dallara concept. I nearly had a heart attack of indignation; “Whaaaaaat another ten years of Dallaras? Say it ain’t so etc.”
Thankfully the truth has turned out to be a bit more interesting.
Don’t blame Tony alone, Nigel. If Cart had admitted they couldn’t exist without the Indy 500 and acted accordingly, with respect and conciliation, the split never would have happened. They went bankrupt twice all by themselves. Tony created a small series with new cars and drivers on different tracks; if Cart was so great, why was it affected at all?