IndyCar drivers have to re-learn The Glen
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| Downforce is so high now, and braking distances, therefore, so low, expect near-zero passing at Watkins Glen. |
When the Verizon IndyCar Series returns to Watkins Glen International Labor Day weekend for the first time since 2010, Simon Pagenaud's mind will be on the series championship, writes Jonathan Monfiletto of the Auburn Citizen.
The Sunday, Sept. 4 race on the 3.4-mile road course in the Finger Lakes region will mark the penultimate event of the 2016 season, and after 12 of 16 races, Pagenaud holds a 58-point lead over 2014 series champion Will Power and boasts a series-leading four wins to Power's three.
"It's definitely going to be a very important part of the Verizon IndyCar Series championship, being the one race before the last," Pagenaud said of the IndyCar Grand Prix at the Glen in the track media center Thursday. "It's important to come here and get the car ready for the race for sure."
The series points leader sat between fellow drivers Tony Kanaan and James Hinchcliffe as he spoke during the break between two morning and afternoon test sessions featuring nearly all of the series' full-time drivers.
Both those who ran at Watkins Glen six years ago and those new to the road course spent time getting their bearings on a repaved track with different cars from those used in 2010 four weeks ahead of the race.
Noting "it's important to get everything right," Pagenaud said he had never been to Watkins Glen before and called it impressive "to come here and see how far we can push the IndyCar around here." He observed that qualifying will be important for the race, but anything can happen with the championship.
For Kanaan, who ran all six races the last time Watkins Glen was a regular fixture on the IndyCar schedule, there is no advantage for drivers who raced there before because they come to the test having to start from scratch.
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"I think that advantage went away," he said, noting Pagenaud and Hinchcliffe have never raced at Watkins Glen. "They took a few laps to learn the track. I took a few laps to really relearn the track because it was so much different than the past. … All my braking zones and everything was completely different."
Still, "it's nice to be back here," Kanaan said, noting that his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon participated in a Firestone tire test in June and had heard from his teammate that the track is faster than it was.
"It's much faster, and the track's very smooth," said Kanaan, the 2004 series champion and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner.
Hinchcliffe was part of that tire test and agreed with Kanaan's assessment of the surface.
"The racetrack is pretty phenomenal in a lot of ways," he said. "The repave has given us a ton of grip. It's nice to be on a smooth racetrack. … It's billiard-table smooth, tons of grip."
Along with the track surface after the Watkins Glen repaving project earlier this year, the drivers also praised the tire that Firestone, which supplies tires for the series, brought to match both the track and the cars.
Pagenaud noted Firestone "went through a batch of tires" during the tire test and encountered blisters and tires worn down to the cords but came back with a different tire for Thursday's test.
"I think the tires are great," he said. "I ran a lot of laps on one set this morning, more than we would expect to do during the race, and they handled really well. … It's nice to have that confidence in the safety of your tire."
Hinchcliffe pointed out that Watkins Glen got added to the schedule late in the season — this year's race is a replacement for the Boston Grand Prix street course that fell through from logistical and public opinion issues — so Firestone did not have as much time to develop a tire specifically for Watkins Glen.
"We're working with tires from other racetracks, and even still, the tire's versatile enough that we're able to come here, a brand-new, very high-grip surface, and still be fast, durable and safe," he said.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2012 series champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 champion who earned his first series victory at Watkins Glen in 2008, said it is great to be back at Watkins Glen because he missed both the track and the area.
"It's going to be interesting for qualifying and the race trying to get everything out of it because it's super fast," he said. "Behind the wheel of an IndyCar, it doesn't get much better than this. One of the nicest, best racetracks in the world, and just hanging it out in an IndyCar is why we do this."
Hunter-Reay said the cars were registering speeds in some corners that were 15 mph faster than the last time IndyCar visited Watkins Glen, and like Kanaan, he said past experience offers no advantage for drivers such as him.
"It's a completely different racetrack — different sight lines, different braking points, different points where you go back to the throttle," Hunter-Reay said. "I had to relearn everything, absolutely. It feels like basically a different racetrack from the last time we were here."