The engineers’ spin: Exciting season on tap

Via IndyCar.com

Editor’s note: Dale Harrigle, chief engineer for Bridgestone America’s Motorsports and manager of race tire development, highlights the upcoming Verizon IndyCar Series season in “The Engineers’ Spin” — a monthly behind-the-scenes look at Firestone Racing’s program from the perspective of the people that make the tires roll.

All of us at Firestone Racing are extremely excited that the long preseason is over and it is finally time to go racing.

We all are looking forward to the first event of the season, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, where the long-awaited aero kits will make their competition debut. But first, we had two days of testing at Barber Motorsports Park – testing that will set the stage for the road course events early in the season.

One unique quality of the aero kits is that, for the first time in over a decade, the Verizon IndyCar Series will have two cars that look completely different on the track at the same time. I had my first chance to really study the aero kits in detail at the Barber Open Test, and I think everyone has to agree that the different visual approaches taken by Honda and Chevrolet will provide a source of endless technical speculation all season long.

One very interesting facet that we have yet to see or test is the alternate tire and its relationship with the new cars – that will happen for the first time next week at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. We frequently talk about the “gap” between the primary tire and the alternate tire, defined as how much faster the alternate tires are than the primary. The additional downforce from the aero kits is going to change the gap, giving the teams an additional unknown going into the weekend.

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