Dixon ready for IndyCar at Road America
Change is inevitable in racing from year to year, but the off-season adjustments in IndyCar with a move to a common aerodynamics package for Honda and Chevrolet-powered cars were more than a simple little tweak.
The car looks more streamlined with a lower engine cover, a bit of a throwback to the early 1990s that has been uniformly praised. From a performance standpoint, the car has less drag and produces less down force than the previous manufacturer-built “aero kits” and is more prone to sliding around.
As the Verizon IndyCar Series prepares to return to Road America in Elkhart Lake for the Kohler Grand Prix on Sunday, defending winner Scott Dixon discussed the changes recently. Dixon also has won two of the past three Verizon IndyCar Series races, the first round of the Detroit doubleheader and Texas.
Q. So we come back up here … a big difference is the aero package. What do we expect? Any feel from Barber (Motorsports Park, a 2.38-mile natural-terrain road course in Alabama) what that’s going to do as far as lap times or ability to pass?
A. We’ve definitely seen a slight loss in lap time. I think at Detroit it was about a second. I think St. Pete was about the same. Alabama a little bit
more. But Road America and Indianapolis GP actually are the closest down force levels. Going to a low-drag track like Indy GP or Road America we’re somewhat close to what we were last year. There’s some places, yes, we can probably make a little better. The front wing needs some adjustment for next season and maybe a different design. The cars look really cool, and so far the racing’s been good.
Q. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but it seems like with each year, passing got harder. Is there something to that?
A. We qualified fifth last year and came through to win the race. In the mid-pack the racing was pretty good. The problem right now to what you’d see a few years ago is that the competition is just so tight. I remember when I first entered the series in 2003, you’d have a bad qualifying and you’d maybe miss by a couple of tenths and you’d lose three or four spots at most. Now you do that, you’ll be 15 spots back. It makes it really tough to pass someone that’s almost the same speed and in some places maybe a little bit (slower) than you.
Q. So if you’re on that bleacher section at the bottom of the hill in Turn 5, you’re probably not going to notice any particular difference in somebody eager to make a daring move or being willing to go around the outside or something like that?
A. No. I think you will see people closer. The thing that’s different too this year is the tow, the way it sucks the car up, is actually a lot more. So especially going into Turn 5 at Road America, that’s a huge braking zone after a massive straight, you’re probably going to have scenarios where you’re going to see cars closer and trying to pull off more passes for sure.
Q. In the past few years some of the competition question of Honda vs. Chevrolet (was) is it aero or is it engine? They work in different ways. How’s the competition now?
A. When you had Honda that made their own aero kit and their own engine, it’s really difficult to pick where the advantage is. We, as one of only two teams that did the switch (between manufacturers, from Chevrolet to Honda), kind of understood it more than others. They drive totally different. They reach almost the same performance level in an entirely different way. It is quite interesting to see how that’s playing out. Where last year, we’d say, “Chevy, oh, they have way more down force on the road courses. That’s their advantage.” But that wasn’t always the case.
Q. The way the engines drive differently — how do you expect that difference to manifest itself at Road America?
A. You’re probably going to have both manufacturers trying to counteract each other. So you have the potential later in the year that they get more similar. The Honda is really strong on mid-range. It’s very good on fuel mileage and that low-down power, whereas Chevy seem to have that top-end power. (The Chevy is) quite hard to drive.
Q. As I recall one of the things you really credited last year was (your Honda's) drive off (Turn) 14.
A. Yeah. That and the fuel mileage. We didn’t really have to tune back with the Honda. The Hondas have always had amazing fuel mileage. And the drivability is probably the biggest thing. You link how you place your foot and how you move your foot, percentage-wise, to what the engine actually delivers you, it’s quite tough.