Chevrolet and Honda both continued to complete more laps with the new hybrid system that the IndyCar Series will introduce for the 2024 season.
Will Power and Alexander Rossi gave Chevrolet their mileage on Thursday while Honda had Colton Herta and Alex Palou behind the wheel. Thursday’s running was the first time that the new hybrid components got mileage on a superspeedway after testing at Sebring, Gateway, Barber Motorsports Park and the IMS road course.
While neither mileage nor speed data were released, drivers were unofficially timed from 215 through 219 mph.
Rossi revealed that he ran 30 laps in his morning run. His first experience with the new hybrid system ahead of Kyle Larson’s rookie orientation program was all about figuring out the new tools available to him.
“Getting laps, getting mileage under our belt, understanding the limitations of the system, areas where we got to adjust what we know is normal based on what it’s doing,” Rossi said when asked about important takeaways.
“But so far the morning was very smooth. I think we’re getting a clear understanding of how things are developing once we get into running this afternoon.”
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Power has had the most mileage with the new system. There have been different permutations that IndyCar has put into place between automatic and manual regeneration and deployment and Power has felt the positives and negatives of each variant.
“I think they’re still playing with the rules, because you may have it where you have auto regen and deploy, but you also have the ability to pull the paddle,” Power said of how the hybrid component is activated.
“Instead of getting into the hard limiter in top gear, you use that as a regen tool. It’s still a lot of stuff to go through.
“I think if you’re having to pull that paddle, it would be an advantage because that is quite awkward on a road course to be grabbing that, hitting it every time out of a corner.
“I don’t think that will be the case. The last test we weren’t doing that. It was auto everything.
“I think they’re still kind of trying to understand how best to use it, which I think the best way to use it is to get the most out of it for lap time, which is using it as much as we can.”
Palou tested the hybrid component at Barber Motorsports Park and at Gateway before testing at IMS. The hybrid component gives the two-time IndyCar champion an additional way to get an advantage over his fellow competitors.
“It’s a completely different thing,” Palou said.
“It doesn’t look like that from the outside, but it’s actually a lot of [new] things that the driver needs to think and stuff. I never had to think about regen at IMS.
“It’s already a lot of work trying to be on track, weight jacker, bars. Now you need to regen and deploy.
“You still have the weight jacker and bars. It’s a lot of stuff that we’re adding, which hopefully it’s not too much.
“At the moment I feel good. Let’s see with traffic if it gets too much. But I think it’s super exciting even for the teams, drivers, that we get more stuff to play with. New things are always fun.”
David Malukas and Marcus Ericsson will get their chance with the new hybrid components in Friday’s testing alongside Power and Palou.
In between IndyCar’s morning and afternoon hybrid testing windows, Kyle Larson completed his Indianapolis 500 rookie orientation program.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion ran a fastest lap of 217.898mph while completing all three phases of his rookie program that allows him to practice next May ahead of the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500. Larson will be entered in the #17 McLaren Chevrolet in a partnership with Hendrick Motorsports.
A lot of people have given Larson advice on how to run at Indianapolis, but one piece of advice has stood tall above all others: trust your instincts.
“If something doesn’t feel right, at least during practice and testing, the couple weeks leading in, you’ve got plenty of time. If something doesn’t feel right, just pit,” Larson said.
“Tony told me that. Danica [Patrick] was texting me last night, same thing. Kurt [Busch], Jimmie [Johnson]. They’ve all said the same thing.
“I’ve got a lot of people I can talk to. I’m sure I’m going to be able to soak in more and more information now that I got to drive the car once.”
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