FORT WORTH, Texas – Gusting winds hampered a tire test Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway, but Firestone was able to gather valuable information on what specification it will bring back in June for the DXC Technology 600 on the 1.5-mile oval.
Ten Verizon IndyCar Series drivers participated in the test, with Sebastien Bourdais and rookie Pietro Fittipaldi splitting time in the No. 18 Team SealMaster Honda for Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan. Other drivers at the test were Marco Andretti (Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian), Ed Carpenter (Ed Carpenter Racing), Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing), Tony Kanaan (AJ Foyt Racing), Josef Newgarden (Team Penske), James Hinchcliffe and Robert Wickens (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing).
INDYCAR had hoped to have drivers run in small groups later in the day to see how the new Indy car handled in traffic on a superspeedway, but delays from the high winds prevented group running from taking place.
“The topic that takes precedence for the whole day were the conditions,” said Bill Pappas, INDYCAR vice president of competition/race engineering. “The winds were about as bad as anybody has seen coming here to test or race, so trying to get a clear read on the changes if you’re adjusting the car was very difficult.
“Firestone did get through their entire test list, clear on what kind of tires they don’t want to bring back. They were at least happy to get those crossed off the list. They’ll go back to Akron (Ohio, site of Firestone’s technical center) and do their homework and come back with a suitable tire for the race.”
Just four days after nearly winning in his Verizon IndyCar Series debut on the streets of St. Petersburg, Wickens was logging crucial seat time on an oval in the No. 6 Lucas Oil SPM Honda.
“It’s interesting,” Wickens said. “So far (in) my INDYCAR career, every time I’m in the car I feel like I’m learning a lot. I did my first oval test period in Phoenix (last month), then first INDYCAR race, then now first superspeedway, so it’s all a work in motion.
“Today, I think the conditions weren’t phenomenal. The wind wasn’t too kind to us. It was really gusty and made things pretty difficult, but I learned the track and learned a thing or two about superspeedways, and am looking forward to coming back here in June.”
With teammate Hinchcliffe also present, Wickens got a better look at the proper racing line and discussed different car placement opportunities, such as the tight exit of Turn 4. He said being a rookie at a tire test proved in some ways more beneficial.
“Firestone said it today that a rookie driver for a tire test is better because they have nothing to compare it against,” Wickens said. “In terms of trying to find a good compound, I don’t have a good (oval background) like what an experienced driver might have, so they liked my feedback. They enjoyed, I guess, that I didn’t know all that much, that all I was doing was commenting on the tire and not comparing to anything else because I didn’t have much to compare it against.”
Fittipaldi, the grandson of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi, is scheduled to make his Verizon IndyCar Series debut at the Phoenix Grand Prix next month at ISM Raceway. He drove the Dale Coyne Racing Honda in the afternoon and was impressed by the speeds.
“It was fast, man,” Fittipaldi said of his first laps at Texas. “It was really fast in the beginning, very different to Phoenix. Obviously, the aero is a lot less compared to Phoenix. At Phoenix, we use the high-downforce wing.
Fittipaldi appreciated the fact that he had veteran teammate Bourdais on hand to guide him through the complexities of the new car on the Texas track.
“This was definitely the fastest and I felt it,” Fittipaldi said. “Then Seb, he’s a great guy and he’s been giving me tips on how the car is going to feel. It feels really light down the straight, especially with the gusty winds. That’s why we ended up stopping because the car was sort of moving around down the straights, and then the steering wheel gets really heavy in the corners once you get banked. It’s a strange feeling.
“You sort of lose confidence when the steering gets light and then it grips back up when you get to the banking. It was a good experience.”
The DXC Technology 600 on June 9 will be the ninth of 17 races on this year’s Verizon IndyCar Series schedule. The race airs live at 8 p.m. ET on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.