Yahoo Autos IndyCar has some lessons to learn from its first hybrid oval race
The kindest way to present the running of IndyCar’s first hybrid oval race is to say the series left Iowa Speedway with a lot of lessons and a lot to improve in the days and weeks ahead.
Separate from the issues that led to a dire lack of passing, race control’s administration and officiating of the event was the prime area of concern expressed by the paddock.
To start, in qualifying on Saturday afternoon, Jack Harvey’s No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda did not have its energy recovery system (ERS) activated by race control to provide its 60hp electric boost. Harvey’s car also made its make-up run without the ERS functioning due to an activation problem from race control. He was given a third qualifying run, which finally had the 60hp on tap from the ERS.
Colton Herta’s No. 26 Andretti Global Honda experienced the same lack of ERS activation on his first run and was given another chance to qualify, which the team ultimately chose not to use.
In Race 1, Linus Lundqvist was given a drive-through penalty for being out of line on a restart. Katherine Legge was given the same drive-through for being out of line on a restart. Marcus Armstrong was ordered to the pits late in Race 1 to resolve a problem with an odd activation of the blinking rain/caution lights on the back of his car.
Getting into the specifics, Lundqvist in the No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was directed to serve his penalty on lap 132. His violation happened on the lap 93 restart, meaning it took IndyCar’s race control 39 laps, or more than 15 percent of the race — 15.6, to be exact — to assess the penalty. Although laps go by in a flash at Iowa at approximately 17-20 seconds apiece, that still pushes the clock past 10 minutes between the infraction and the awarding of the penalty.
With time being a critical component in motor races, the ability to pay the price for an infraction at the earliest opportunity is always preferred to give the driver as much time as possible to try and recover from the drive-through, stop-and-go, or stop-and-hold. In the case of Lundqvist, race control’s call arriving 39 laps later was characterized as being penalized in the third quarter for a foul committed in the second.
In the field of 27 cars, Legge, driving the only mauve-pink entry in the race with Dale Coyne Racing’s e.l.f.-sponsored No. 51 Honda, was somehow mistaken for one of the 26 non-mauve-pink cars. She was incorrectly given a drive-through penalty that could have belonged to another, unknown driver. Legge was running 16th at the time, pitted on lap 138 of 250 to serve the penalty, lost a lap, fell to 21st, and finished 17th after other drivers fell out. Lundqvist’s ERS unit stopped working late in the race, which left him in 21st.
Similar to Lundqvist, but worse, it took 46 laps for Legge’s phantom penalty — 18.7 percent of the race — to be awarded.
IndyCar chose to review the footage of every start and restart at Iowa to look for single-file penalties, and RACER understands the takeaway from the ambitiously thorough reviews was they took longer than anticipated and will be subject to possible changes to expedite the process.
The source of the error with the No. 51, for which the series apologized to the Coyne team after the race, has not been provided. The series acknowledged Legge did not violate the single-file restart rule, but according to the Race 1 results, it also failed to penalize any other drivers after Legge for restart violations. Since the ‘correct’ penalty wasn’t assessed to one of the other 26 drivers, it’s hard to say what the series got wrong in the first place.
Legge was issued a ‘phantom penalty’, for which the series later apologized to Dale Coyne Racing. Geoffrey Miller/Motorsport Images
Armstrong’s issues with his rain/caution lights turning on followed, and he was instructed to pit to have the glitch resolved. The driver of the No. 11 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda didn’t turn them on, and there’s no immediate answer to why they lit. As he was preparing to pit from a strong 10th-place on lap 223 and forfeit the best oval finish of his career, a caution came out on lap 224, the rain/caution lights were activated by race control for the entire field, and the No. 11’s switched off when it was over, which allowed Armstrong to keep his 10th-place at the finish.
Sunday morning’s five-minute systems-check session for drivers to leave the pits, cross start/finish once, and pit, in order to make everything was working correctly after many overnight repairs and four ERS replacements were required, was met with another hitch for the hybrids.
The five-minute outing was completed, but the cars’ ERS units weren’t activated. Some teams and drivers started to leave pit lane when race control added more time to give them a chance to go back out and double-check their hybrid systems. RACER understands there was a problem with a transponder that affected all 27 cars, and once it was fixed, the second attempt was a success, with activated ERS units performing as intended.
In the three instances during qualifying when Harvey’s first two runs and Herta’s lone outing did not appear to have their ERS units receive the go-live messages from race control, RACER has been told the source of the problem was software-related. The software is said to have shown that the command for the ERS units to activate was sent, but in fact, the software was wrong, and the cars did not receive the instructions. RACER understands the software matter has since been resolved.
The series’ first hybrid oval event revealed more flaws than expected in how the ERS units are managed from race control, and in the unacceptably long process of conducting start and restart reviews on its fastest short track. It wasn’t pretty from qualifying through the systems check, and more hybrid problems should be expected to arise, but Iowa was also a reminder for some — and a first experience for others — of how new racing hardware and software is rarely perfect in its opening races.
Removing the ERS units and investing more time and money into testing would alleviate the immediate issues being faced and would lead to better systems going live in 2025. But issues would still arise at St. Petersburg, then The Thermal Club, and more events until the new and inevitable kinks are worked out of the technology in the cars, and in the tools used to manage the systems in race control.
The hybrid growing pains can be kicked down the road, but the best way to reveal their shortcomings is with the entire field in action, in the heat of competition. Bench testing, simulations, and private testing won’t fully replicate what was experienced at Iowa or any other race weekend.
Dallara’s new-for-2012 DW12 chassis underwent thousands upon thousands of miles of testing before it debuted at St. Petersburg, as did the new 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 engines from Chevy, Honda, and Lotus. For those who were there that weekend, the array of problems with the DW12 were significant, and after the first day of practice, Honda-powered teams were in a semi-panic over the gap they faced to Chevy. Lotus-powered teams never had a chance. In time, the DW12’s core issues were improved. Honda was routed 11-4 by Chevy, but worked like mad to get better and won the 2012 Indy 500, and Lotus gave up.
Minus Lotus, the introduction of manufacturer aero kits in 2015 saw Chevy molly whop Honda, go 10-6 on the season, and IndyCar had to enact a ‘joker’ rule to allow Honda to redevelop its aero kit for 2016, which was in improvement, but Chevy went on the attack, taking 14 of the 16 races.
The aero kit tides turned a bit in 2017 when Chevy only won 10 of the 17 races as both brands agreed to deescalate the aerodynamic war and move to today’s spec UAK18 bodywork in 2018. Some deficiencies take years of effort to try and overcome and are never fully erased. Others are tackled and forgotten in a half-season or less.
Leaving Iowa, it’s clear that IndyCar needs to do a better job with its turn to hybridization, but a reason to panic has yet to appear. It might. But the series is nowhere near that point after two hybrid events. This isn’t the first time a ton of time and money has been spent on new technology that has proven to be imperfect on its debut and in the races afterwards. What’s taking place now is frustrating, but it’s part of the same age-old teething process in the sport.
As for calling phantom penalties and taking forever to assess restart violations, those seem like items that can be handled before the next race starts on Sunday in Toronto.
