First photos of IndyCar Windscreen test at Phoenix (Update)

Scott Dixon

UPDATE Added more photos of Scott Dixon testing the new windscreen at Phoenix this evening. Appearance-wise IndyCar has done a great job.

"No show-stoppers," Dixon told RACER after climbing from the car. "It's a little bit different, looking through something that is so thick. I thought it would have messed with distortion a lot more, but there's nothing like that; no problems with reflection.

"Obviously we'll run a little bit later to see how it is in a more dusk setting, and then again tonight. But the weirdest thing is just how quiet it is – you don't have any buffeting; the car is very smooth, like you've gone to a really luxurious, dampened car.

"We'll need some cooling, because you get no airflow through the car. But kudos to IndyCar. There are definitely things we can improve on, but [they've done a good job, and hopefully we'll find some more things tonight."

"Early on there was more of that, where the screen stopped short and your peripheral vision sort of went through it," he said. "I think for some of the guys in the sim that was a little bit of an issue – when you're trying to get close to walls, you couldn't really feel how wide the car was or where you were. But obviously they extended that, and made provisions to fix that issue. You're looking through quite a substantial piece of material, and it just takes your eyes a bit of time to adjust to how you look through it."

"I think it will be interesting on a road and street course, just with the perception of the corner and seeing how you're coming into it, and seeing if there's issues if you're looking through finer gradients of where you visually look through [the corner]," he said. "But nothing yet."

02/08/18 Sure looks better than that hideous F1 Halo. Let's hope it works.