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INDYCAR: Series Makes Fuel Capacity Reduction
It might not sound like much, but a small reduction in fuel cell capacity has helped to fix an ongoing row between the series and its teams.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted March 18, 2012  
IndyCar Series teams will now have the fuel capacity parity that was missing prior to the passing of a recent rule change. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
It might not sound like much, but a half-gallon reduction in fuel cell capacity has helped to fix an ongoing row between the series and its teams.

With smaller, more efficient engines as the stated goal for its 2012 formula, INDYCAR reduced the fuel capacity from the 22 gallons used last season in the Dallara IR07 to 19 gallons with the new Dallara DW12.

But as teams found when they took delivery of the brand-new chassis, not every fuel cell (manufactured by Premier in the UK) was created equally.

Teams discovered significant variances in the as-delivered volume of each fuel bladder--which will hold E85 ethanol this season--when installed in the DW12, with a half-gallon shortage to slight overages being reported.

For teams with the oversized fuel cells, reducing the capacity to the 19-gallon limit wasn’t an issue; the use of dense, grapefruit-sized plastic balls to reduce fuel cell volume is a common practice.

With each ball accounting for approximately 0.1-gallon capacity, a fuel cell measuring at 19.5 gallons, for example, would require five balls to hit its target, but for the teams with undersized cells, easy solutions to add the missing half-gallon capacity don’t exist.

The series, as a result of the number of undersized fuel cells currently in place (and growing unrest from the teams with undersized cells), made the call to bring the fuel capacity down to 18.5 gallons, the size of the smallest tank measured.

Had INDYCAR maintained its original fuel limit, teams with 19-gallon cells would have gone just over a half-lap longer per tank around St. Petersburg’s 1.8-mile circuit than those with 18.5-gallon cells.

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett on Twitter.
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