IndyCar: O’Ward finishes Tuesday on top at Sebring (Update)

The final times from IndyCar testing at Sebring Tuesday are below.

Pato O’Ward’s time of 51.882s stood as the fastest lap of the 2-days.

The Penske Chevy Hybrid prototype continued to have gearbox issues, but Will Power finally got to within 1.1s of the best time for the day, so an improvement.  The Chevy engineers are still working with the Honda engineers and Mahle to make the hybrid components work reasonably well so IndyCar can advertise they have a hybrid power plant for the 2024 season.

It’s still very much a work in progress.  Meanwhile, F1 has employed hybrid engines since 2009, so IndyCar should have it 15 years later.

“I wouldn’t say we have a metric for the 2.2-with-hybrid if you’re talking percentage power gain,” Chevrolet’s IndyCar program manager Rob Buckner told Motorsport.com.

“We’re still working on the recipe of, How do you regenerate the energy? How do you deploy it? How much of it should be in the driver’s hands as opposed to the ECU’s hands? What is open to the manufacturers to calibrate and what is not?, etc. Those details are going to become clear throughout the course of this year. We should know more about power output mid-season in terms of direct comparisons to the 2.2 liter engine without hybrid.

Final Tuesday Sebring Test Times

The three Arrow McLaren Chevy’s have turned the fastest times at Sebring Tuesday morning where IndyCar private testing continues ahead of the season opener in St. Petersburg, Florida in March.

Pato O’Ward turned the fastest lap so far at 51.8822s in the #5 Arrow McLaren Chevy, comfortably faster than the #7 sister car of Alexander Rossi.

The Hybrid-Chevy Team Penske car continues to have major issues, with Will Power only getting in 3 laps after yesterday’s limited running.

Sebring Tuesday Morning Test Times

Monday Sebring Test Times