The American IndyCar Series teams planned to switch to hybrid powerplants in 2024, but this had to be postponed until the second half of the season. The reason is that Honda and Chevrolet motorists did not have time to conduct sufficient tests with the new generation of engines and achieve the required level of reliability.
However, things are gradually moving forward, the bench testing period is largely behind us and this week at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida they finally took part in a properly lengthy test on real track conditions.
Based on the feedback from the participants in these three-day tests, the updated power plants and especially their hybrid systems worked well. The ‘field tests’ involved two cars from the Arrow McLaren and Team Penske teams with Chevrolet engines, and two cars from Andretti and Chip Ganassi Racing with Honda engines.
In total, 10 riders rode 1446 laps, that is more than 5,000 km, and the speeds were also at a very high level.
Will Power, Team Penske driver and two-time IndyCar champion, summarized the test results this way: “No issues, everything went smoothly, no one had to be towed into the pit lane… Every time we returned to the pits, the mechanics have adjusted the settings, the debugging process. It went fine, so everything will be fine.”
The teams and their engineers still have time to further refine the hybrid systems, as their racing debut is expected closer to the summer, after the Indy 500 in May.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
