Indianapolis IndyCar test postponed due to cold weather

A private IndyCar test at Indianapolis has been postponed a day due to cold weather, with McLaren SP dropping out altogether.

Originally, 20 cars were supposed to take to the Brickyard’s road course on Thursday (local time), only for that figure to drop by half as teams eyed weather forecasts.

Now, just three teams with a combined seven cars are set to cut laps, this Friday.

Specifically, they are Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta, Romain Grosjean, Alexander Rossi, and Devlin DeFrancesco; Meyer Shank Racing’s Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves; and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott.

McLaren SP had been going to run not only regulars Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, but also Juan Pablo Montoya, who joins the squad for the May road course race at Indianapolis and the ‘500’ which follows.

The test in question is not the first this week at Indianapolis which has been disrupted because of cold weather.

Chevrolet and Honda, along with their respective partners in Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing, ended up spending three days at the Brickyard working on their new, 2.4-litre engines.

The programme, which represented the first on-track running for the powerplants that will debut in competition in 2024, was supposed to have been a two-day affair but mileage was limited due to the low ambient temperatures.

Ironically, CGR was one of the teams supposed to test with its current package on the following Thursday, having also pulled out of a day of running at Texas Motor Speedway earlier in the month due to the frigid conditions.

The next race event of the year is the Grand Prix of Long Beach, on April 8-10 (local time).