New IndyCar tire rules, chassis upgrades announced

Verizon IndyCar Series teams will now have the ability to receive credit for new Firestone tires left over from the race event allotment for each entry.

The new tire allotment regulations will vary depending on the type of event. Here’s how they break down:

For street course races, one set of new primary (black) tires remaining can be carried over to a future street race and added to the entry’s allotment.
Additionally, any remaining new tires from an entry’s event allotment may be added to the entry’s testing allotment. Remaining new sets of alternate (red) tires will be returned to the entrant as primary tires (each entry is permitted 54 sets of primary or wet tires for their 18 days of testing through the end of the season and carryover tires must be the correct spec for the circuit).

So, for example, should a team have three sets of tires remaining from the March 30 season opener in St. Petersburg, they’ll get credit to have one set of primary tires carried over to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and two sets carried over for a future test day.

As for testing, teams can carry over two sets of tires from the ongoing Barber Motorsports Park Open Test to another Open Test or team test. Two more Open Tests are scheduled for April 30 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Aug. 27 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

Finally, entries that run five or more laps during the first practice session at all events except for those held on superspeedways will earn an additional set of primary tires for the event.

INDYCAR has also announced multiple modifications for the Dallara DW12 after Verizon IndyCar Series drivers gave their input.

Those upgrades include:

• Carbon fiber panels on the exterior and interior sides of the cockpit to supplement the current anti-intrusion panels for additional side impact integrity
• Carbon fiber reinforcement ring for additional structural integrity of the cockpit opening
• Modifications to the headrest surround for road/street races, in which the Kevlar covering will be replaced by Nomex surrounding three different densities of foam
• EPP plastic foam material (usually used in molding driver seats) will replace carbon panels on outside of the drivers’ thighs
  Strengthened road course rear wheel pods

Additionally, the series has commissioned Dallara to evaluate a new steering damper for the DW12. IndyCar.com reports that the damper will have an initial test soon and that power steering for the cars have not been ruled out as a future addition.