Why the Indy 500 is “fascinating puzzle” in response to ex-F1 engineer David Brown

The 33 vehicles that can take part within the Best Spectacle in Racing on Sunday have already undergone numerous hours of labor in retailers and on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in an try and turn out to be the following Indy 500 champion. However what does a technical director search for when organising a automotive to carry out at its finest on this distinctive 2.5-mile oval monitor?

Motorsport.com sat down with David Brown, who joined Juncos Hollinger Racing final December, to grasp how an IndyCar group navigates the Month of Could and the forces concerned in taming a automotive that goes nearly 240 mph. Racing for Juncos are Conor Daly and Sting Ray Robb.

Brown has many years of motorsport expertise. He spent almost 15 years in System 1 with Williams, the place he engineered Nigel Mansell’s and Alain Prost’s World Championship seasons, and labored additionally with McLaren and Jordan.

But, he’s fascinated by the Indianapolis 500. “The extra you get entangled, the extra you perceive why folks turn out to be obsessive about the Indy 500,” Brown says.

From a technical standpoint, what does the automotive should be quick within the Indianapolis 500?

“It is a juggle between drag, steadiness and effectivity. So it is easy to look at the race from the skin and assume it is nearly operating minimal wing and minimal drag. However the issue is you could’t, as a result of you may be too sluggish within the corners. Although the vehicles nonetheless look quick within the corners, should you raise and also you lose momentum, and you must preserve the revs up. So all these little tiny issues be part of collectively to provide the [car’s] general efficiency. So that you’re on the lookout for low drag, however you want downforce, which implies you additionally want effectivity, which is a mixture of the 2. You want excessive energy, which is nice as a result of we’ve got a Chevy engine, which is excellent engine.

“But in addition it’s worthwhile to get that energy onto the street, which implies it’s worthwhile to be very environment friendly in your transmission. So it is one other mixed issue. You additionally want to have the ability to keep full throttle, which is the downforce aspect of it. So that you’re maximising the output of your engine and your transmission.

“After which in site visitors, you want to have the ability to reply with the right gear ratio choice. So all people runs fourth, fifth and sixth gear very, very shut collectively. So you are able to do laps with a tow, for instance, at sixth gear. However once you’re in site visitors, you would possibly should be fourth gear, and a really small hole, so that you’re nearly imperceptible. You see the driving force’s hand transfer and the engine word modifications just a bit, since you’ve made a 70 rpm rev change to the engine by altering gear.

“So all these tiny issues come into focus then, and that is simply producing the lap time. I imply, you’ve got obtained pit stops, that are completely very important. You’ve a automotive which has obtained the wheels like this for rubbing on the oval, braking at most deceleration into the pit lane, although the skin of the tyre is totally chilly and blah, blah, blah, blah. And the automotive’s obtained a weight jacker, which is the cross weight is all on one aspect of the automotive. So once you come to cease the automotive within the pit lane, you typically see folks locking wheels and stuff.

“The concept is that, you already know, you possibly can’t make errors by having the improper brake bias and the improper weight jacker place once you come into the pit lane, as a result of in any other case you threat, aside from the truth that you’ll slide far and wide and scare all of the folks within the first pits, you threat crashing the automotive coming into the pit lane and ruining your race. So there are such a lot of little particulars. It is an interesting puzzle to place collectively.

Conor Daly, Juncos Hollinger Racing

Photograph by: Motion Sports activities Pictures

It’s clear you are obsessed with it. After all, you may have a number of expertise with different types of motorsports, particularly System 1. How would you examine the Indy 500 to every part else you’ve got finished in your profession?

“It’s extremely particular person. It’s extremely uncommon. I imply, I’ve finished Le Mans and Monaco and Daytona and every part in between, you already know, all of the kind of lengthy races and 20 years of System 1 and stuff. And it is simply… it is like a face via a display screen, proper, you already know, it is there and also you kind of acknowledge it, however nothing is precisely the identical. And so you must alter your notion once you get entangled in it.

“And I did get entangled on this race 20 odd years in the past, however solely on the kind of periphery. However it’s been a number of studying for me. However it’s fascinating. I typically speak about race engineering and engineering and racing vehicles. You understand, these individuals who spin plates on a stick? You see the man operating round. He has 20 of these items going. He is operating. It is identical to that. That is precisely what you are doing. So you must guarantee that all of the plates are nonetheless spinning.”

Having all today of apply means there’s a number of knowledge to investigate. How does Juncos Racing course of all of that?

“Properly, it is attention-grabbing you must say that, as a result of on paper, sure, we have got numerous time. However in actual fact, we’re at all times operating so long as we presumably can in each session due to the challenges of qualifying and the significance of qualifying, and the truth that the configuration of the automotive is so completely different for qualifying.

“We’ve actually two separate areas. We’ve the race preparation and the qualifying preparation. And the automotive, after all, is an analogous automotive, however its last aero configuration and so forth is kind of completely different for qualifying — and the ability. We get further enhance. All people will get further enhance for qualifying and all that kind of stuff. So we arrive right here having finished numerous simulation.

”We did the Open Check, which is 2 days. So we arrived right here with some concept of what challenges we have been going to face. And we’ve got a listing of identical to with another problem in life, you may have a listing of issues that you just need to attempt to you need solutions to. And we begin off with an important ones and we work in direction of the least essential ones.

“After all, it is by no means as linear and as apparent and as easy as you’d hope. So at all times further issues comes up. You both study one thing that units you off in a barely completely different course to your benefit otherwise you study one thing that is not working nicely and you must go one other route to be able to compensate.

“And there’s, as you say, a number of knowledge. We’ve three engineers immediately engaged on every automotive. Plus two different senior engineers, myself and Will (Phillips), who’s the senior engineer on the opposite automotive. We get a number of help from GM as a result of we’re a GM engine workforce. In order that they have engineers as nicely who’re wanting on the knowledge. So in operating the 2 vehicles, we have in all probability obtained, together with the GM folks, in all probability 10 or 11 folks knowledge, which is so much. However we generate a number of knowledge. It is enormous.

How do you divide your time throughout apply between qualifying and the race?

“We ran Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So I feel we ran three days of apply, which was race apply. However we did additionally do some operating on our personal to attempt to apply slightly little bit of qualifying. So perhaps a 3rd of a day. After which the day earlier than qualifying was simply practising for qualifying. After which you may have qualifying itself. As a result of we narrowly missed moving into the highest 12 by 0.06 of a mile an hour, some tiny margin. And naturally, every part is tiny margins as a result of it is IndyCar and it is Indianapolis. So we did not must run on Sunday. However right now (Could nineteenth) we have got two hours of apply after which we’ve got carb day on Friday, that is one other couple of hours, and that is it, that is the race. It would not take lengthy to whip via all that point.

“Although it is such a brief lap, the circumstances are continually altering. So not solely the atmospheric circumstances, as a result of, you already know, of the wind and the temperature and the ambient strain and humidity and stuff, all of which makes a distinction. If the wind modifications and we’ve got to alter the downforce stage, if the temperature modifications, we’ve got to alter the wing settings to compensate for the temperature.

“By the point you coated all that stuff, you actually are operating on a regular basis. I imply, right now we need to do lengthy runs, some 30 lap runs, identical to the race to take a look at the tyres and have a look at the efficiency and have a look at the dealing with as over the size of it because the gasoline load comes down and the tyres degrade, for instance. However Carb Day is it is fairly late to make huge modifications by the point you get to Carb Day actually. You are simply kind of checking every part, ensuring, simply doing the tiny little kind of sprucing, should you like, of the efficiency. However right now is kind of an essential day. It is solely two hours and it is going to go ‘growth!’.

How does a automotive’s setup differ between qualifying and racing?

“For us, it is primarily been aero. I imply, some folks have made some extra mechanical modifications, however when you’ve got a automotive which you actually like from a mechanical perspective. And so a very good automotive mechanically, is a automotive which you’ll be able to run a spread of aero balances on an aero parts and it is nonetheless the identical. So we expect our automotive is snug for the drivers. So we made primarily aero modifications, however only a few mechanical modifications.”

Sting Ray Robb, Juncos Hollinger Racing

Photograph by: Penske Leisure

How straightforward is it to fall off the window with the setup by making a slight change?

“Very straightforward. Yeah. I imply, each time we make a change, we measure how the automotive is earlier than we make the change after which measure afterwards, which implies actually if we modify the entrance wing angle within the pit lane, we measure the entrance wing angle within the pit lane, although we have finished it half an hour earlier than. We measure it and we modify it, we measure it once more. So we’re coping with, what did we make the opposite day? We made a wing angle change of 0.15 of a level. Full insanity, 0.15 levels like this, however as a result of it makes such an enormous distinction as a result of at 230 miles an hour, the forces are huge. And should you’ve obtained an imbalance, every part is magnified.”

It is humorous that you just talked about that as a result of I heard Conor Day by day say that he did not really feel proper with the automotive throughout the Open Check. He stated that he wasn’t snug, and also you modified the entrance wing. Even if it was presupposed to be the identical entrance wing, it type of modified the entire steadiness of the automotive. That is how tough and small the margins are.

“Sure, we ended up truly having to pick by operating them on the automotive to verify all of the wings as a result of the circumstances it is not likely very straightforward to mannequin as a result of the expectation is each wing is identical. However in actual fact, each wing is completely different. And so we’ve got some checks which we do on the wings statically to measure how stiff they’re and the way strong they’re. So we measure vertically and in torsion and all these issues like all people else does. And we do another checks as nicely. And once we choose the wings from our inventory, which we’ve got a main wing and a secondary wing for every automotive, after which we run them on the monitor simply to make certain, as a result of as you say, if if it is barely imbalanced, then it is over. You understand, it is going to be a really, very lengthy day.”

Which instrument is an important for adjusting the automotive setup within the Indy 500? Are you able to decide only one, or is that not potential?

“Properly, the great factor and the fascinating factor is the racing automotive is like these fashions of chemical compounds, these balls with balls and every part is related. So each time you make a change to 1 a part of the setup, then one thing else goes to maneuver as nicely. And it is simply because it is a racing automotive. That is the way in which racing vehicles are, which makes it attention-grabbing, but it surely makes it tough to outline which goes to predominate. It might be apparent to say, ‘oh, the aero is essential’. Yeah, it’s. However so the mechanical aspect, as a result of that controls the experience heights and the experience heights outline the aero. So is every part is related. And so you should use the mechanical aspect to alter the aero properties of the automotive, for instance. In order that they’re tied collectively. The apparent factor is we modify the wings so much, however we additionally change the suspension as nicely. You understand, some folks run completely different wheelbases relying on whether or not they’re racing and qualifying. Fairly huge modifications, however we did not as a result of we fairly like our automotive like it’s. So we simply modified some fewer parts.”

Juncos has had quick vehicles on the Indy 500 for the final couple of years, however they’ve had inexperienced drivers for this particular occasion. How a lot did Conor’s IMS expertise change the automotive?

“I feel that one of many issues that Conor brings due to his expertise, he’ll drive the automotive, he’ll are available in and say, ‘that is how I need the automotive to really feel or this isn’t how I need the automotive to really feel. It is OK for one lap, but when I get into site visitors, it does this and it strikes an excessive amount of’. He’ll make feedback like, ‘Sure, I do know what it seems like now. And my expertise tells me that within the race, it is going to really feel like X, which is both good or dangerous.’ And that brings an enormous plus to us, an enormous benefit.”

You’ve the hybrid unit for the primary time this yr for the Indy 500. Was it tough to discover ways to use it?

“Sure, I feel we, together with most individuals, have labored with it sufficient now to know what we need to do with it within the race. You noticed in several methods in qualifying, it isn’t going to be like that within the race as a result of you’ll use the hybrid in a totally completely different means as a result of it is a completely completely different surroundings within the race. However most individuals have been utilizing it lengthy sufficient to have expertise of how you can use it correctly. So, yeah, it is simply one other piece so as to add into the puzzle, should you like.”

Do you assume it could possibly be a deciding issue within the race?

“Properly, I am certain should you get it improper. The factor is that everyone has it, proper? So it is like making the engines larger. All people will simply go sooner. However you will get it improper. And so if anyone will get it improper or, you already know, the driving force would not press the button on the proper time, that can turn out to be an affect. But when all people does every part completely, nothing will change. However after all, that applies to every part, pit stops, and so on.”