INDYCAR: 100 Seconds Of Push-To-Pass For Mid-Ohio

IndyCar

INDYCAR: 100 Seconds Of Push-To-Pass For Mid-Ohio

The IZOD IndyCar Series will provide 100 seconds of Push-to-Pass this weekend at Mid-Ohio, and has a new twist for its drivers to deal with.

Marshall Pruett | Posted July 31, 2012

Helio Castroneves used his Push-to-Pass allotment to perfection at Edmonton, cancelling out Takuma Sato's use of the button to maintain his lead. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

The IZOD IndyCar Series will give each driver 100 seconds of Push-to-Pass for this weekend's race on the 2.2-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio road course.

The overtake button, which was re-introduced at Toronto, gives drivers an extra 1.5 pounds of turbo boost to use at their discretion.

Its intent was to make it easier for drivers to make passes, but as the last 20 laps of the most recent race in Edmonton proved, P-t-P is just as effective as tool to prevent passes from taking place.

"What [my race strategist] said was for me to use Push-to-Pass all the time, and I told them there was no way [Takuma Sato] was going to pass me in the corners, so I just told them to tell me when he uses Push-to-Pass, and I'll defend it," Edmonton winner Helio Castroneves told SPEED.com. "It worked out very good."

With Push-to-Pass usage shown on the live timing and scoring feed, teams are able to monitor its application and instruct their drivers to use it as a defensive option. Although there's a slight lag in that information hitting the timing screens, the leading driver is still able to negate its stated purpose of creating more passing.

If there's one tweak that would improve P-t-P, patterning its functionality after Formula One's Drag Reduction System is worth considering.

With DRS, once cars reach the DRS detection zone(s), and provided the trailing car is within one second of the car it's pursuing, DRS is disabled for the leading car.

Although it's a gimmick, and I'm not a fan of gimmicks to promote passing, if the IndyCar Series wants P-t-P to spice up its racing, it needs to look at how to disable its use as a reactive tool, and according to the series' VP of Technology, a version of that concept will be unveiled at Mid-Ohio.

"We built into the system the means to do just that and we've just been careful of introducing too many new things too soon," said Will Phillips. "The intent of this weekend is to introduce a delay in the activation. If we use a delay of five seconds, you'd need to commit to using it before braking for the Keyhole, for example, to have full use of the Push-to-Pass at the exit of the corner. It should take away the ability for instant defense."

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, and covers the IndyCar Series. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.