After several years of the same old chassis, the 2012 IndyCar that Dan Wheldon had been developing has been tested intensely this week, including by Will Power and Ryan Briscoe
IndyCar strives for balance between speed and safety
Three months after its Dan Wheldon tragedy IndyCar racing is focused on the future, with serious testing this week of the new car the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner had been developing for the series.
Australians Will Power and Ryan Briscoe were among 10 IndyCar drivers who took part in two days of testing this week at Florida’s Sebring circuit.
Turbocharged 2.2-litre V6 engines from all three suppliers – previous monopoly supplier Honda, returning Chevrolet and newcomer Lotus – ran in the new Dallara chassis.
While there was considerable enthusiasm about the chassis that has been labeled the DW12 in memory of Wheldon, who died in the horrific finale to last season at Las Vegas, Power tweeted: “This car is a bit of a handful.”
Briscoe said the Chevrolet’s power “wasn’t always easy to handle” and that the car was “challenging” but that he felt things were headed in the right direction.
Pre-Christmas testing, which had been for the chassis manufacturer and the Honda and Chevrolet motors, had sparked concerns – mostly that the new car would be much slower than its long-running predecessor on oval tracks.
Initial oval testing revealed an extreme rear weight basis that made handling tricky on the banking of an oval.
Most drivers and teams were much happier with it on the Sebring road course and IndyCar has cranked up the propaganda that, come the Indy 500 in May, it will be “easily capable” of averaging 225mph (362kmh) around The Brickyard as the fans there expect. Almost demand.
While there was no official timing at Sebring, the consensus among the teams was that New Zealander Scott Dixon, a former series and Indy 500 winner, had been fastest in a Honda-powered version of the DW12.
Briscoe did more than 100 laps in a Chevrolet-engined version for Team Penske.
“We had some teething problems the first day – most electronics stuff – but I’ve had a productive time working with my new engineer, Jonathan Diuguid,” Briscoe said.
“It looks like the Honda guys were a little bit faster than us, but we got to get into some changes for the first time—[suspension] geometries, springs and bars, and other set-up stuff—and overall, it was a lot of fun. It wasn’t always easy to handle the power, either. The turbo’s pretty strong.
“There had been a lot negative comments about that, but when the boost comes in on the slow corners you’re feeding in opposite lock and trying to hold on to the thing. It can catch you out if you aren’t paying attention. It’s challenging, and it’s going to get faster and faster as we keep testing.
“Overall, I’d say we’re on the right track. My impression was pretty nice – better than expected.”
Graham Rahal, who drove another of the Honda-engined Ganassi cars, said it was “fun as hell to drive – it’s pretty wicked”.
Many drivers commented that the Bremo carbon fibre brakes made slowing and stopping the DW12 much better than on the previous IR07.
“The brakes are awesome,” Rahal said. “The car also has a ton of downforce.”
The DW12 is wider in front of the rear wheels which should make it much safer and lessen the open-wheeler cars rubbing tyres.
It uses a paddle shift system in the steering wheel instead of the previous foot clutch.
Lotus is months behind Honda and Chevrolet with its engine but Simona de Silverstro logged a lot of mileage at Sebring for the HVM team.
Lotus, whose parent Proton was bought by another Malaysian company DRB-Hicom this week, is contracted to supplying six cars in four teams in the IndyCar season on the St Petersburg street course in Florida on the last weekend of March.
Another Sebring test is scheduled at the end of the month, with the Australian drivers due to participate there, and Briscoe is booked for another two days immediately after that at the Sonoma road course in California.
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