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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Testing Shifts To Sonoma
IndyCar Series teams switch coasts after last week's two-day test at Sebring to sample northern California's Sonoma Raceway on Wednesday.
Two Honda-powered cars and seven from the Chevy camp will test Wednesday at Sonoma. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
IZOD IndyCar Series teams are set to switch coasts after last week's two-day test at Sebring.
The warmth of central Florida will be replaced by temperatures in the high 60s at northern California's Sonoma Raceway on Wednesday as two-car entries from Dragon Racing (Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Saavedra), KV Racing (Tony Kanaan and Simona de Silvestro), Panther Racing/Panther DRR (JR Hildebrand and Oriol Servia) and Schmidt Hamilton/Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (Simon Pagenaud and Tristan Vautier) will be joined by the single Ed Carpenter Racing entry for the team's namesake.
The nine drivers will utilize the altered track configuration employed during last year's race which saw alterations to the Turn 7 and Turn 11 hairpins.
Simon Pagenaud will lead the day’s activities for his SHM team and for Honda, which will use the HP-sponsored No. 77 car as part of a manufacturer test day. The Frenchman, who claimed Rookie of the Year honors in 2012 after placing fifth in the championship, told SPEED.com he’s been anticipating a return to the cockpit for quite some time.
“It's really interesting this year,” he said. “It's the first time I’ll be in the same team with the same car two years in a row! I raced at the Daytona 24 Hours, but this is my first time in an Indy car this year and I can’t wait to get going.”
Tristan Vautier, the reigning Firestone Indy Lights champion who joined Schmidt’s IndyCar program as Pagenaud’s teammate, has handled the testing duties during the last two outings. As one of the most technologically adept drivers in the series, Pagenaud wants nothing more than to dive into the team's engineering and development program on Wednesday.
“There's a lot of items the team found over the weekend (from Sebring) and there's a lot we want to try at Sonoma,” he said. “[Sonoma] was one of the places we were the weakest last year, and we still weren't bad, but there's room to get better.
“I’ve been talking with the engineers on everything they've tested, what they've found on the shaker rig, with Tristan in the car, and look forward to trying some new things that should help us at Sonoma and other tracks, for sure. It's going to be one of the busiest days of the year.”
Pagenaud has grown accustomed to flying solo since returning to open-wheel racing, but even with a teammate in the sister Schmidt car, he won’t be able to reap the full benefits that come from splitting engineering and development loads. That will only come when Vautier gains more experience.
“Tristan is really young, but he's really fast,” said Pagenaud. “And we know that if he goes slower, a setup change didn't work for him. He can produce a fast lap, but it will take him more time to understand what it was about the car or that change that made him go fast. This is the natural part of a rookie’s learning process. He’s very promising already, though.”
With all of two days behind the wheel of Schmidt’s Dallara DW12-Honda Indy car, Vautier is slowly building a rapport with his engineers. His technical feedback regarding the car’s handling and the direction it needs to be taken also continues to grow.
And like the input from any rookie who’s recently joined a top-tier team, Pagenaud says he'll take Vautier’s chassis input under consideration until it’s proven to be 100 percent accurate.
The warmth of central Florida will be replaced by temperatures in the high 60s at northern California's Sonoma Raceway on Wednesday as two-car entries from Dragon Racing (Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Saavedra), KV Racing (Tony Kanaan and Simona de Silvestro), Panther Racing/Panther DRR (JR Hildebrand and Oriol Servia) and Schmidt Hamilton/Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (Simon Pagenaud and Tristan Vautier) will be joined by the single Ed Carpenter Racing entry for the team's namesake.
The nine drivers will utilize the altered track configuration employed during last year's race which saw alterations to the Turn 7 and Turn 11 hairpins.
Simon Pagenaud will lead the day’s activities for his SHM team and for Honda, which will use the HP-sponsored No. 77 car as part of a manufacturer test day. The Frenchman, who claimed Rookie of the Year honors in 2012 after placing fifth in the championship, told SPEED.com he’s been anticipating a return to the cockpit for quite some time.
“It's really interesting this year,” he said. “It's the first time I’ll be in the same team with the same car two years in a row! I raced at the Daytona 24 Hours, but this is my first time in an Indy car this year and I can’t wait to get going.”
Tristan Vautier, the reigning Firestone Indy Lights champion who joined Schmidt’s IndyCar program as Pagenaud’s teammate, has handled the testing duties during the last two outings. As one of the most technologically adept drivers in the series, Pagenaud wants nothing more than to dive into the team's engineering and development program on Wednesday.
“There's a lot of items the team found over the weekend (from Sebring) and there's a lot we want to try at Sonoma,” he said. “[Sonoma] was one of the places we were the weakest last year, and we still weren't bad, but there's room to get better.
“I’ve been talking with the engineers on everything they've tested, what they've found on the shaker rig, with Tristan in the car, and look forward to trying some new things that should help us at Sonoma and other tracks, for sure. It's going to be one of the busiest days of the year.”
Pagenaud has grown accustomed to flying solo since returning to open-wheel racing, but even with a teammate in the sister Schmidt car, he won’t be able to reap the full benefits that come from splitting engineering and development loads. That will only come when Vautier gains more experience.
“Tristan is really young, but he's really fast,” said Pagenaud. “And we know that if he goes slower, a setup change didn't work for him. He can produce a fast lap, but it will take him more time to understand what it was about the car or that change that made him go fast. This is the natural part of a rookie’s learning process. He’s very promising already, though.”
With all of two days behind the wheel of Schmidt’s Dallara DW12-Honda Indy car, Vautier is slowly building a rapport with his engineers. His technical feedback regarding the car’s handling and the direction it needs to be taken also continues to grow.
And like the input from any rookie who’s recently joined a top-tier team, Pagenaud says he'll take Vautier’s chassis input under consideration until it’s proven to be 100 percent accurate.
INDYCAR BRAZIL
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