INDIANAPOLIS — How do you replace the basic chassis architecture that has served IndyCar since 2012 and produced some terrific racing, without losing the identity of an IndyCar in the process?
They needed to increase performance, improve racing, incorporate new technology and enhance safety.
But they also couldn’t build something that fans looked at and said, “That’s not an Indy car.”
From what we’ve seen and now learned about the engineering underneath it, I believe they struck a winning balance.
The IR-28 looks modern, aggressive and fast. But importantly, it still looks like an Indy car.
That matters.
IndyCar could have taken a much bigger design swing, something approaching Formula E, substantially more enclosed bodywork, fenders or even a completely enclosed cockpit.
It might have been technologically interesting.
It also might have alienated a significant portion of the existing fan base.
Instead, Dallara appears to have been relatively conservative with the visual revolution while being considerably more aggressive with the engineering.
And that’s where I think the IR-28 becomes really impressive.
Start with weight.
IndyCar says the IR-28 will be up to approximately 100 pounds lighter than today’s car.
That’s significant.
The current chassis has steadily gained weight as safety systems, the aeroscreen and hybrid components have been added. Taking roughly 100 pounds back out of the package should improve acceleration, braking, responsiveness and ultimately lap time.
But perhaps even more important is where that weight is coming from.
The new hybrid system is approximately 20 pounds lighter and the gearbox approximately 25 pounds lighter. Together with reductions throughout the chassis, bodywork, suspension and other components, the changes should produce better overall weight distribution.
IndyCar’s engineers specifically point out that removing weight from the rear of the car should produce a more stable and better-balanced race car.
Then there’s horsepower.
The new engine formula moves from today’s 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 to a new 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6, with Chevrolet and Honda continuing as engine manufacturers.
The new engines are expected to produce as much as 760 horsepower from the internal-combustion engine alone, with additional electrical power available from the hybrid system.
More horsepower plus substantially less weight is a combination every race driver understands.
But here’s the engineering change that could matter most to the fans:
The IR-28 has been designed specifically to race better in traffic.
Dallara has worked on controlling the turbulent air coming off the car, particularly around and behind the front wheels. The objective is to create a cleaner aerodynamic wake so the following car loses less aerodynamic performance.
In simple terms:
- Get closer. Stay closer. Pass more often.
- If that works as intended, it could be the most important improvement of the entire project.
- The hybrid system is also taking a major step forward.
- The IR-28 moves to a battery-based Energy Storage System with approximately 14 times the energy-storage capacity of the current supercapacitor-based system.
- That gives drivers and engineers significantly greater flexibility in how and when electrical energy is deployed.
- Think about what that potentially means strategically: more opportunity to use hybrid power offensively to attack, defensively to protect a position, and tactically at different points around a race track.
- The cockpit has been redesigned as well.
It is larger, capable of accommodating a wider range of driver sizes, and integrates the aeroscreen more naturally into the overall chassis design. Adjustments that currently require drivers to reach for controls alongside the cockpit are being moved to the steering wheel, including anti-roll-bar adjustments.
That means drivers can make important chassis adjustments without removing their hands from the wheel.
There are safety benefits throughout the design as well. Dallara has been able to take advantage of modern manufacturing and design techniques to remove mass while maintaining extremely demanding crash standards. Less mass also means less energy that must ultimately be dissipated during an accident.
Put everything together:
- Less weight.
• Better weight distribution.
• More horsepower.
• Far greater hybrid capacity.
• Cleaner aerodynamics.
• Better ability to follow another car.
• Improved driver controls.
• Enhanced safety.
And yet when you stand back and look at it, you immediately recognize what it is.
An Indy car.
That’s why I think IndyCar and Dallara made the right decision.
They didn’t reinvent the car merely for the sake of reinventing it.
They preserved the visual DNA of IndyCar while substantially reengineering what happens underneath the bodywork.
Ultimately, however, there is only one test that matters.
Put 27 of them on a race track.
If these engineering changes perform as advertised, particularly the reduction in turbulent air and the ability for one car to follow another more closely. We’re going to see faster cars, more passing and better racing.
And perhaps even some long-standing track records challenged along the way.
My early verdict: the IR-28 is a winner.
Now let’s see it race.
