2 days of IndyCar off-season testing at Sebring
- Farhan Khurram
- Jan 17, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 19, 2019
The first off-season private test session for the 2019 IndyCar season was topped by James Hinchcliffe who drives for the Honda powered Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. James set a fastest lap time of 51.37 seconds at the 1.7 mile Sebring short circuit.
In total 11 drivers participated in the test that spanned up to 2 days. Zach Veach and the 2017 Indy 500 winner, Takuma Sato finished the tests as 2nd and 3rd respectively.
IndyCar rookie and former F1 driver, Marcus Ericsson managed to slot himself in the 8th position overall. The Swedish driver will mark his IndyCar debut, racing for the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
Zach Veach explained how it was invigorating to be finally back in the cockpit of an IndyCar after months of rest. “You take a few months off, and you kind of forget about that. You get out on track and you’re like, ‘Whoa. These things are fast.’”, said Veach.
“It kind of shocks you how quick these cars are”
Veach seemed quite upbeat regarding the performance of the car and applauded his team's efforts.
Ed Carpenter Racing's Spencer Pigot was also quoted by IndyCar saying that his team managed to squeeze a lot of information regarding the aero kit and that the engineers made a lot of efforts in refining the kit during the off-season.
“We’ve learned a lot about the aero kit and how the car reacts to it, so we’re trying to put everything we learned last year and all the ideas we had in the offseason together and make fine-tuning adjustments to the car now,”
“Everyone has had a year on it now, so we know the characteristics of the kit and what it does.
"We’ve had the entire offseason to throw ideas around and point out different things we want to improve.” said Spencer.
Andretti Autosport's Marco Andretti asserted that how his team had an excellent aero kit in 2018; evident by the fact that Alexander Rossi finished a strong 2nd in the points table, only behind the champion, Scott Dixon. Marco said that the team was now capitalizing on all the performance gains last season.
“We’re down to the smaller changes at this point”
Marco Andretti said, “Luckily at this point, Andretti Autosport has really good roll-off-the-truck street-course stuff. We’re just trying to make it even better.”
Marco was further quoted saying that, “I love it, especially on the street courses,”
“That had been where I usually struggle, but now it’s where we’re starting to shine. We got a pole last year (at Detroit), and one of my goals going into last season was to get a pole."
"Now it’s to try to win races, and that’s a definite possibility with the cars they’re giving us.” he concluded.
The current aero kit was introduced in 2018, and it was been highly welcomed and praised by the drivers. Andretti Autosport enjoyed a high level of competency with the aero kit on the street courses.
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' boss, Taylor Kiel spoke about the his drivers' outings on the track and how SPM has gathered data to improve the car. He said, “There were times when we could be quick but weren’t consistent with it."
"So while we want to unload well and compete for poles, we also need something we can race with, too. There were times in 2018 – Detroit, Long Beach for example – when we qualified well but we didn’t have a good racecar, we couldn’t keep the tires under us.
“So we’ve taken big swings at a couple of things to make a more predictable package and one that stays consistent on raceday.” said Kiel.
SPM Honda's James Hinchcliffe managed to accumulate 80 laps in total on the 2nd day of the testing. His new teammate, Ericsson lapped the circuit a total of 120 times; it was his 2nd time driving an IndyCar at Sebring.
Andretti Autosports' race engineer, Ray Gosselin expressed his satisfaction regarding the 2nd day of testing. He voiced his concerns regarding the fact that no matter how much progress they might have made in the off season, they still don't know what their rivals are up to.
“Certainly things we found in the offseason that we thought would be gains got positive feedback from all four of our drivers today, not just in terms of feel but also lap times." Kiel was quoted as saying by Motorsports.com.
"But… what has Penske gained? What has Ganassi gained? What has Coyne gained? There’s a lot of talent that wasn’t at the test today so you never know until the timesheet actually counts how well you did with your technical improvements."
Gosselin then reiterated that:
“But that’s the fun part and that’s why we race.”
Dale Coyne Racing kicked-off the testing session at Sebring a day earlier with the rest of the teams following the lead. This off-season test is to be further followed by another two test sessions. Both Laguna Seca and COTA will be host to IndyCar off-season testing on February 8th and February 12th-13th respectively.
The 2019 IndyCar season will get underway on March 10th in St. Petersburg with Scott Dixon as the defending National Champion and Will Power as the defending Indy 500 champion.
Following are the lap times:
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