Advanced IndyCar stats and analytics
In 2018, only three races were won by drivers starting outside of the top ten. Qualifying has always been recognized as a pivotal part of the race weekend as it is what sets drivers up for a good result on Sunday.
Using data from 2008-2018 which includes 187 races, I took a look at three interesting questions related to starting position and how races play out.
The third and final full length practice session has finished up at St. Pete and now teams will head out and qualify this afternoon. A few red flags came out this morning that took away some practice time, but every driver still got some solid time on the track on the black tires.
Both of Friday’s practice sessions for the season opener at St. Petersburg have finished up, which means we can take a closer look at the sector heatmaps from each of these sessions.
As a reminder the heatmaps show the percent above or below the field average a driver’s sector time is. Purple is above average (good) and red is below average.
Continue reading “The First Sector Heatmaps of 2019: Where Spencer Pigot Can Improve”
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| Photo Credit: Chris Owens |
Ryan Hunter-Reay’s camouflaged Honda machine was doing the component testing on track. The most noticeable change on the car came in the design of the side pod. It looks almost identical to the one Chevy ran this past season.
Speaking to RACER, HPD vice president Steve Eriksen said “we’re allowed, just like Chevrolet, to test concepts and ideas before we homologate those aero kit pieces, and we have a series of tests planned to find directions on what we want to use.”
“We’ll continue testing prototype pieces during the offseason.”
The following, courtesy of RACER, gives an outline of what Honda and Chevy are allowed to change on their aero kits, per the current rules.
Per IndyCar’s aero kit rulebook, manufacturers are allowed to replace select pieces on the car for 2016. The majority involve oval aerodynamics, including new Speedway front wing main planes and end plates, new speedway rear wing end plates, and new Indy 500 rear wing main planes and end plates. For road and street courses, minor updates to the front and rear wing components are permitted, and a new engine air intake is open for development.
Honda will be looking to close the gap to their Chevy counterparts during the offseason. With a limited testing schedule, a good majority of this testing will have to be done in wind tunnels and on the computer – not on track.
Chevy hasn’t started testing new aero kit designs publicly.
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| Photo Credit: eMercedes Benz |
If you thought Mercedes was fast before, think again. Mercedes introduced a new-spec power unit for the Italian Grand Prix this weekend. They spent their remaining seven tokens on this upgrade.
The specifics of the engine upgrade weren’t released but Mercedes did say it was meant as a “tactical” decision to speed up planned developments for the 2016 season. Mercedes are now using their 2016 engine to track test it for the rest of their year. Since there will be no winter testing (engines are homogenized in February, before testing begins), Mercedes are testing it out for the rest of the season.
The Single Seater 