INDYCAR: Lotus Submits Mid-Season Performance Upgrade Request

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Lotus Submits Mid-Season Performance Upgrade Request

Monday, June 18th served as the one day during the season engine manufacturers can lobby for performance upgrades, which Lotus exercised.

Marshall Pruett | Posted June 20, 2012

Lotus is hoping its engine, code named "DC," will receive enough concessions from INDYCAR to wage a stronger fight with Chevy and Honda as part of Rule 4.7. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

It's the rule and date on the calendar Chevy, Honda and Lotus kept tucked away as a safety net and for at least one of the marques, it could be the answer to drag itself off the back of the grid.

Monday, June 18th, marked the first and only opportunity for IndyCar's three engine manufacturers to lobby the series for performance upgrades during the season, and although you won’t see any major signs of improvement this weekend at Iowa, when the IZOD IndyCar Series returns next month on July 8th at Toronto.

By then, the Lotus-powered HVM Racing entry driven by Simona de Silvestro could pose a more consistent threat to the middle of the grid thanks to Rule 4.7 in the engine regulations.

Rule 4.7 defines the parameters necessary to qualify for the one-time helping hand from the series while the championship is under way, and also outlines what will happen if too much help is given, stating: "At June 18th and again at the end of the year manufacturers whose engines are statistically more that 2.5% deficient in power may, at the sole discretion and evaluation of INDYCAR, make improvements to be homologated immediately.

"These will be introduced only on new engines being sent to the track. These improvements are allowed to make up 2% of this shortcoming. Should this be exceeded INDYCAR may elect to reduce performance standards to remain within the 2% window by means of boost or RPM control. In assessing this, only measurements accumulated statistically during testing, practice and race conditions will be used."

Speaking with SPEED.com, Trevor Knowles, INDYCAR’s engine tech chief, and John Judd Jr., whose family-run Engine Developments Limited company builds Lotus’ 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 engine, explained the mid-season upgrade from their respective positions.

“First, a manufacturer needs to ask for the upgrade,” said Knowles. “Then they’ll come along with data—simulations of what they have in mind or to support what they’re asking for to back up their case. We’ll look at that, any data we have like torque sensor data, and they also present what their plans are for the upgrade, what they want to change, when the parts will be ready to go on the track and what gains they expect to get from them.

“Then we look it over, look at the feasibility and whether we agree with their numbers or not, and how much we think they are down [on power]. Then we’ll either let them do everything they want, none of what they want, or some of it.”

Utilizing the aforementioned torque sensors INDYCAR uses on the driveshafts of the Dallara DW12 to benchmark acceleration forces, the series has continually gathered data to compare and contrast how the three manufacturers have fared in putting power to the ground.

And with simulation data, logged data from the cars and GPS-based performance information, Knowles and the rest of INDYCAR’s technical staff have been able to generate an accurate portrait of which engine is the most powerful, and using the same tools, determine how far off the least powerful engine is from that standard.

“It’s an opportunity we’ve been working towards,” said Judd of the chance to redesign off-limits development items while the championship is under way.

“We hope INDYCAR will accept our request—that we’re more than 2.5 percent down to the others—and within that, we have a list of proposed items we’d like to change.”

With Judd confirming the Lotus powerplant is beyond the 2.5-percent gap it needs to trigger the use of Rule 4.7, INDYCAR is expected to allow the British firm to push a few new upgrades through to draw closer to its rivals.

“It could be straight away, or it could take a few days [for approval] if we need more information,” Knowles said of the submission and approval or denial process. “And they don’t have to introduce everything we approve in one hit. If they still have parts in development, it could be a scheduled introduction of those parts as they become available on the timetable they submit to us.”

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