2017 Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix

Chris A · PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2017 2:04 am

racer612008 wrote:

they are damned if they do or don't. Uber-high amounts of wing/fin generated downforce will have too much dirty air to pass, but yet the Hanford/speedway wings didn't really work for CART in the early 2000's either. Just have to find the right balance of power & aero. Hopefully with the return to the bottom of the car generating the most downforce next year, it will help passing at tracks like Phoenix, Iowa (which had some good racing with the original Dallara DW12 kit) and Gateway. Wish they would try the RC boost levels though (like what Power and others have been asking for)

I think Gateway is stretched out enough that they have a chance of a decent race this year. I'm sure they'll cruise through 3 & 4 but I think the straights are long enough and turns 1 & 2 are tight enough to allow a much bigger maximum/minimum speed gap than Phoenix.

racer612008 · PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2017 2:25 am

yeah I think Gateway is going to be the best of those 3. Straightaways are long enough to set someone up I think. Just hope it's not just divebombs on corner entry being all of the passing

codename_47 · PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2017 3:26 am

pending wrote:

I'm pretty sure I've posted this article before, but I'll do it again.

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news ... rick+mears

And I'll thank it every time too

And similar statements from Paul Tracy, Nigel Roebuck, Gordon Kirby and various others who have been banging this drum for DECADES and for some reason are never listened to because they're deemed old/irrelevant

At some point someone in the racing world will think "hmmm, what happens if we increase power and reduce downforce?" and give it a try, and we'll have some spectacular racing again.

Ian-S · PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2017 8:48 am

Doing what we all want would involve modern Indycar management admitting they were wrong all along, which is about as likely to happen as me being hit by a tram while sat on my bog reading a newspaper.

Or they'll do the NASCAR thing and meet half way which won't achieve anything.

racer612008 · PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2017 11:01 am

I believe the rumored reason why they didn't change anything for this year was because they didn't want teams to spend more cash with the new bodywork coming for 2018 apparently. They did test lower downforce packages for Phoenix last fall too

(don't see how it's different when you have to replace the aero parts anyway when you tear things up, such as how half of the field did on lap 1)

electrodevo · PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2017 1:09 pm

codename_47 wrote:

And similar statements from Paul Tracy, Nigel Roebuck, Gordon Kirby and various others who have been banging this drum for DECADES and for some reason are never listened to because they're deemed old/irrelevant

Based on articles like this, I am actually guessing that unfortunately there are certain *drivers* that are very happy with that IRL-style easy-driving uber-downforce formula and don't want to see any changes, racing be damned. :slaphead:

(Let the speculation on which drivers are providing the "feedback" to Indycar begin. For a start, it's not Will Power.)

Gaara · PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2017 1:44 pm

Carpenter?

Remember him calling the first Texas race with the DW12 boring.

iks · PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2017 3:06 pm

Besides Carpenter i cant think of anyone else except probably Chilton. Not even Kimball is that lame.

pimmy · PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2017 7:36 pm

Nah, even Chilton criticised the aero in his post-crash interview on Saturday.

pending · PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2017 11:01 pm

Have a look at Power's interview after Fontana in '15. He mentions something along the lines 'The Nascar guys ask for less downforce, yet half of our guys ask for more'

I doubt it's literally half the field. No doubt that Ed is one of them.

codename_47 · PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2017 3:06 pm

Ed and probably old man Helio.

And any driver like them who is (who is way past their prime anyway and trying to make the cars easier to drive so they can extend their shabby careers)

And anyone else I don't like

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2017 Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix

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