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As the name suggests, the Dallara-built DW12 has been in use since the 2012 season.
Since then, the car has undergone two major aerodynamic updates. The first significant change came in 2015 when controversial manufacturer-specific body kits were introduced.
Those were dumped at the end of 2017 and in 2018 the universal aero kit was standardised.
In 2020, the Red Bull Advanced Technologies-designed aeroscreen was introduced, adding cockpit protection in a similar vein to F1 and its halo.
This year, after multiple delays, the series added hybrid power to its 2.2-litre twin-turbocharged V6 engines.
With the aeroscreen and the hybrid system, the cars are now heavier than ever.
That, according to two-time IndyCar Series winner Power, may be the biggest contributing factor in the lack of overtaking at the latest Iowa Speedway double-header.
“I just wonder if we’re just too heavy, the car is simply too heavy now,” he explained after Monday’s win.
“Then when we add the downforce, it overloads the tyre. That’s sort of the predicament.”
IndyCar reduced the amount of rear downforce teams could use at Iowa Speedway over fears the cars would be overloaded.
“I feel like if we were 200 pounds lighter, you could run more downforce, run a softer tyre,” said Power.
“There are a lot of things that would go toward being able to.”
The DW12 is by far the oldest chassis in IndyCar history with nearly 13 seasons under its belt.
Between 2003 and 2011, the DW12 predecessor chassis with its IR designation was given multiple updates over its lifespan before being retired.
IndyCar had hoped to have retired the DW12 by now and Power believes the series is at the points where it should introduce a new car and find weight savings.
“I think that should be, and probably is, a big focus of the new car coming in a couple years, is to knock a lot of weight,” said Power.
“It’s hard to, but I think they really need to focus on that. Formula 1 is trying to do the same thing, trying to knock a lot of weight out of their car.
“If you saw the racing at the beginning of this year, which is the lightest we’ve been for a bit, a lighter gearbox casing and bell housing, it was pretty fierce, good, hard racing.
“It was a lot more moves and closer racing.
“I just wonder if that’s what it is. Even with this package, maybe just a softer tyre might just work with this downforce level. Just a softer tyre.
“If it degrades, people go out. You can roll to the outside. I don’t know what the answer is, but we certainly got to do something for next year.
“We went from the best oval race we would have all season to potentially the least amount of passing.”
That passing stats from this year’s race are not flattering with less than 200 passes for position over 500 laps. Compare that with last year’s race that had nearly 700 passes for position.
On top of that, neither Power nor his teammate Scott McLaughlin really sought to put cars down a lap or more.
The total number of passes was less than 400 across this year’s two races while last year had a combined 2670.
“That was a tough balance,” said Power.
“I was basically backing the corner up and just getting on the throttle really early.
“Every time I would come out of the corner, it was a big run. He [Palou] would close up there, which you couldn’t really do anything. It’s usually when someone gets a big run on you.
“Trying to keep backing up. Five to go, a bunch of cars battling and started really to back up.
“This is going to be interesting, but I did my best. I was keeping an eye on him and just trying to keep that gap to get big exits.
“It is a pity. Clearly faster than the group in front of us. You just can’t do anything. You can take a bit of a risk.
“Two cars got by Palou and myself, lappers. You can do it. But if we ran hard, you couldn’t. We were sitting back, saving fuel. You simply need a second lane.
“If there’s a coating we can use or something, but a second lane would [make] this race amazing, as it has been in years past.
“I don’t know if you can speed up the degradation process of a track. I heard they’re going to resurface the whole thing in a couple years. Does that make it better for us? Maybe. Maybe you can start high. I don’t know.”
