2018 IndyCar creates opportunity for Penske, says Newgarden

The Hendersonville, TN-born 26-year-old won the IndyCar title this season in his first year at Team Penske-Chevrolet, and admitted that had the cars stayed the same for 2018 it would have given him less work, given Penske’s competitiveness in the manufacturer aerokit era.

However, he believes that the profound aero changes for next season will also work in favor of both the team and himself as he seeks to defend his title.

Recalling his switch from Ed Carpenter Racing to Penske in the previous offseason, he told Motorsport.com: “Everything [at Penske] was surprisingly different from the team I was at before. I had to learn all new setups, had to learn a different feeling from the car.

“I didn’t even like the way the Penske car felt. It was very uncomfortable when I first drove it. It created a lot of grip – it was a fast car – but I just didn’t like the way it felt. So I had to get used to all that for every racetrack.

“And you go through the year and you make your notes for every racetrack and you get it all dialed in and you feel really good, because, y’know, we did all our homework this year, and it should be easier in Year 2.

“Well, it’s still going to be helpful but most of it’s going to get erased and we’re going to have to redo that whole process. So from that standpoint it will be harder.

“But I actually really like that because it creates an opportunity to do a better job than other people. I think when you’re with Team Penske you always feel a little more confident that we can sort it out sooner. So [the new aerokit] could be an advantage at the end of the day. I’m not scared of it; I think it’s a good thing. I like change.”

Describing the characteristics of the car, Newgarden remarked: “The setups will change massively, the driving styles will change. In a way it’s easier to drive because it’s way more predictable, you understand what the car’s doing, it’s more forgiving and less snappy. But then it’s also moving around more, it’s way more unsettled but more progressive.

“It depends on the driver. I’m going to love it, I think it’s going to be great and I think a lot of guys will shine with it; some others probably won’t enjoy it as much, won’t like it compared with what an IndyCar used to do.

“The balance is completely different. The weight distribution has gone forward 1.2 percent. And then obviously there’s a big reduction in the downforce. The pitch sensitivity is slightly different, the aero characteristics under braking are going to be a little different.

So all of that together is going to create a lot of change for everyone.”

"Definitely not" at one with new car

Newgarden admitted that his test of the new car at Sebring in September, which saw IndyCar sign off on the new car’s validity on street courses, had been a trial. Asked last weekend if he yet felt at one with the new car, he replied: “Definitely not. It was terrible at Sebring, to be honest with you!

“Our setup was not good and we didn’t work on it at all because our goals for Sebring were helping out PFC, our brake supplier, to make sure they had all their ducks in a row, and to do tire development for Firestone. And so we didn’t even get to change the setup – not one thing did we change… and I would have loved to change the setup because it felt terrible. Juan [Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet’s official tester] felt the same way – this is not going to work. But we had to just stick with it and get through our day. So no, we’re not nearly dialed in yet. It’s going to take some time.”

Newgarden concurred with Hinchcliffe’s recent assessment that street courses will provide the new car’s most striking contrast with the 2015-’17 cars.

“I was talking to Montoya and Oriol Servia [Honda’s official tester] about Mid-Ohio, and it seems like the car at Sebring was very different to how it was at Mid-Ohio. So I think the road course will bring less change than the street course package. Looking at the way you set up the car from a ride-height standpoint, the aerodynamics will change more on the street course than on a road course.”

The “whole dynamic” of cornering has changed

Noting the differences between the IR12 equipped with manufacturer aerokits, and the 2018 car, Newgarden said it required a different mindset and attitude to cornering.

He said: “First off, it was lot more difficult to brake – you had to brake a lot sooner because you didn’t have the downforce and it was very unsettled, very loose, very uncomfortable. And then mid-corner, the turn-in balance and the way you get through the corner was a lot different.

“With the car before, it was, ‘How quickly can you go back to throttle?’ because you had so much downforce on the car. Now that’s not what we’re going to be doing; that’s not where you’re going to find lap time. The whole dynamic of how you enter the corner and how you get through it is going to change a lot.

“It’s exactly what Formula 1 guys want. We’ve moved everything [downforce-wise] to the bottom of the car, taken what we can off the top so it’s minimal and I think we’ll go even more in that direction.

“And we’re going to try and up the power eventually. In the next couple of years we want more power. So we’re getting back to a good formula.”

- additional reporting by Edd Straw, Lawrence Barretto