The execution plan for a team during the Annual Pre-Indianapolis 500 test is quite standard. Drivers are invited to assess a range of heaven’s height changes, suspension adjustments to things like bodywork and toes, as well as support parameters during group outings and solo qualification simulations.
A change is made, the driver heads for a few laps to get a reading and come back to give their opinion – while their engineers look at the integrated data – before the following change. This routine will occur a dozen times or more a typical test day as ideas are tried and knowledge is acquired.
But there is nothing typical in what will happen during the Wednesday test at Lamedi at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Thanks to the introduction of hybridization with energy recovery systems last summer, 12 teams and 34 drivers will use the two -day Speedway visit to find out more about something completely new – at least on the large 2.5 mile oval in a complete setting – while developing best practices to harvest and deploy horses from ERS units.
The selected drivers were able to sample hybridization during a test of IMS tires at the end of last year, but the open test is the place where everyone, from recruits to veterans, can focus on setting their cars in a traditional way and diving into unique strategies linked to the capture of electronic power on an oval. Ben Bretzman of the Penske team, winner of the Indy 500 in 2019 with Simon Pagenaud and Poesitter last year with Scott McLaughlin, expects a hectic rally of 48 hours of information during the test. This will happen in the stages with a lower branch / breed boost on Wednesday, a transition to a higher qualification boost Thursday morning and a return to the race in the afternoon to close the test.
“There is a massive distinction between qualification with the hybrid in relation to how you will use it in the race,” said Bretzman to racer. “So trying to separate these two is the first thing we have to do. Qualifications are his own separate and Indianapolis beast being the largest dyno in the world, you must really understand the efficiency of the hybrid, when you regene and how you regeate during qualification.
“For the race, it’s a whole story. To manage your shortcomings and your approach to pass a car?
“And then, do you use it when you direct or not? What do you do when you try to save fuel in the middle of the race, because this is the section when the pace really slows down and everyone starts to worry about fuel. Do you use it to complete things there?
The complex and competitive requirements of the day of the race bring more permutations in the calculation of the best use of the hybrid system. Josh tonnes / Lumen
The size of the IMS modifies the way in which the hybrid system of Indycar will be used. Apart from Indy, the braking act is the place where the ERS comes to life and does most of the work to charge while the car slows down. The load is essentially free under braking because it does not harm the times on the turn or the speeds of the turn.
At Indy, the harvest will have a cost of performance in certain scenarios as it occurs during acceleration.
Braking is rarely done on speedway in an Indycar, so an electronic bypass solution has been designed which reproduces the effects of the load during braking, all without having to touch the brake pedal.
To harvest energy and fill the battery with around 60 hp to use on demand, the drivers use their frills where a button is pushed, or a lever is fired to tell ERS units to get started and recharge while flying in the straight lines. There is also an automated harvest option which can be activated by their engine suppliers.
The speedway version of the harvest is a softer and less steep version of the road route harvest, but it is always an electronic form of slowdown. Once the harvest is started, the ERS uses the input shaft, which connects the Turbo V6 Chevy and Honda engines to the transmissions, to turn hard and load. But the use of the input shaft to harvest means a drag – a mechanical resistance – is applied, and therefore a singing engine at this red line of 12,000 rpm could decrease to 11,700, or lower, while the harvest in a straight line is engaged. Even if it is tiny, there is no exhaust to the fact that the speed of speedway houses the motorcycle group down during the harvesting between the 4-1 turneries and turns them 2-3.
The negative effects of the load can be canceled in a good project that goes back the engines to their red line, but there is no writing during solo execution during these four qualification towers to define the grid.
The cars will leave to qualify for the big race with their fully loaded batteries, but will someone try to harvest and risk losing speed? Or is there a positive compromise to load each round and stack 60 hp above what the high chevys and Hondas will do?
Look for some teams to try both options during qualification simulations to quantify gains and losses.
“You obviously remove power in Regen,” said Bretzman. “It is a delicate conversation, because you have four rounds in qualification and, obviously, you have this button which gives you more power. When do you want to use it in relation to engine temperatures? When do you want to use it in relation to tire degradation. And then, do you really want to recharge it or not?
“Do you want to lose the power to recharge it? To recover this power at some point, there will be a loss in the system, right? Because you run alone, no draft to hide the loss. So how do you manage this?
Many to follow – and even more to think. Joe Skibinski / IMS Photo
In addition to making the story next month with the race for the first hybrid Indy 500, Bretzman expects the 109th edition of “The Greatest show in Racing” to break a new mental and physical ground with the 33 pilots.
With all the LAP-BY-LAP adjustments, the drivers are already in the cockpit with anti-roller bar adjustments, weight changes, engine adjustment changes on the steering wheel, as well as the change and turning point and the management of a range of other parameters, harvesting, deployment and adjustment of hybrid environments on the steering wheel. Add wheel races and drivers are faced with their most popular Indy 500.
“It will be an excellent overview with the pilots to make them comfortable and confident with what they do,” said Bretzman. “Once you are used to it, it will be easier, but there are still scenarios that will appear throughout the month of May than everyone must understand how to manage. There is a lot on the Racecraft side.
“The drivers will be very, very busy between travel equipment and management of their gaps, project management, then the management of their weight Jacquiers and their hybrid regions and their deployments and trying to save fuel. It is therefore the greatest thing you can get out of the hybrid period of this open test. Overview of this kind of thing now, so they are better prepared when we come back in May. “
