When downforce dominates over power, so that a car can be driven flat out around a high-banked superspeedway, it results in \u2018pack racing\u2019 with competitors jammed closely together. It\u2019s a fearful business and often results in big, multi-car accidents in both NASCAR and IndyCar. <\/p>\n
For years IndyCar\u2019s drivers have pleaded to get rid of the \u2018pack racing\u2019 everybody loathes. <\/p>\n
It was this that resulted in Dan Wheldon\u2019s death at Las Vegas in 2011, and many drivers and team bosses can\u2019t believe IndyCar has made so little progress to eradicate it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told IndyCar we shouldn\u2019t be racing like this,\u201d says Indy 500 winner Juan Montoya after July\u2019s crash-filled California 500. \u201cSooner or later somebody is going to get hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to the right balance between downforce and horsepower, few are better placed to provide perspective than four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears, who continues these days as an invaluable consultant to Team Penske drivers Montoya, Will Power, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I always say is that downforce is like money to a driver,\u201d Mears says. \u201cIf you made $50,000 one year and $100,000 the next, and were then cut back to $50,000, you would say, \u2018That\u2019s impossible. I can\u2019t live on so little\u2019. But if you have to, you discover that it can be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few times in the CART days I recall that we\u2019d try running less downforce. For the first few laps I didn\u2019t like it, but after I had run 30 or 40 it was fine. I felt like I was driving the car again, like I had more input.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen they would try it with some other drivers and right away some of them would say, \u2018You\u2019re trying to kill me!\u2019 So there were always arguments about taking off downforce and there always will be.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut eventually, it has to happen. I\u2019ve said it for years and others have too, and maybe one day some other people will wake up and say, \u2018You know what? Aerodynamics is the worst thing that ever happened to motor sport.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cToday, it dictates everything about the car. They\u2019ve been going down a path with more and more downforce and they\u2019re just boxing themselves into a corner. It\u2019s like anything. At one point something is good but then it reaches a level that\u2019s bad for business. The drivers don\u2019t want \u2018pack racing\u2019, but they seem unable to get away from a formula that creates it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes when you\u2019re chasing the set-up in a car, you work and work and you don\u2019t get anywhere and you have to say, \u2018Let\u2019s stop and go back to where we were and start again. Let\u2019s try another direction.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve made the cars stronger and safer, we\u2019ve built safer walls and better catch fences. The sport has done a tremendous job, but you can\u2019t keep on down this path. If you reduce the downforce and reduce the lateral load on the cars you make all these things better. In effect, you make everything \u2013 the cars, the walls, the catch fences \u2013 safer than they are now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to drive. That\u2019s what I loved doing and that\u2019s what I got paid for. There\u2019s driving and there\u2019s guiding, and they\u2019re two different things. I liked to drive it, not guide it. The more driver aids we have, the less input we have. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, the fun part was: give me more power than I can use and let me figure out how to use it better than the next guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
These words come from one of motor racing\u2019s rare geniuses, a sublimely smooth driver and superb racer. It would be foolish for our industry to ignore Rick\u2019s observations. Heeding and understanding them is essential to the future of the Indy 500 and, indeed, Indycar racing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[167,207],"issue_decade":[121600],"issue_year":[121672],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/52173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/52173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225648,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/52173\/revisions\/225648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52173"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=52173"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=52173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}