IndyCar’s new instant-caution rule proves divisive: “They proved a point”
- Archie O’Reilly
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
Drivers have greeted IndyCar’s new procedure to instantly deploy a caution following any incident with mixed reactions following Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix.
The change came after criticism aimed at IndyCar for leaving Alexander Rossi’s broken-down Ed Carpenter Racing machine stranded on the backstretch of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course under local yellows earlier this month.
Until a review at the conclusion of that weekend, the series were keen to delay cautions to allow drivers the opportunity to pit, so as to not be competitively disadvantaged.
In the wake of the incident at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, it was determined that IndyCar Officiating would no longer consider “pit windows and the running order of cars on track” in situations necessitating Full Course Yellow conditions on road and street courses.
In Detroit - the first event at which the new rules were applied - there were six caution periods for cars hitting strife, all initiated almost instantly. In the eyes of some, there may have been a slight overcorrection after the Rossi debacle.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood was particularly impassioned in his response.
“Not really [surprised],” he admitted. “To be honest, when you get ridiculed and criticised so much by the media, the drivers, everyone involved, that’s what you expect from race control is to throw cautions when there’s incidents.
“Do I think it was the right idea? No. But at the same time, it seemed like they got way too much pressure for leaving a driver on the front straight that was kind of in a safe position [with] 25 competent drivers that weren’t going to hit him. It wasn’t like it was raining. There was 100 yellow [flags] out there.
“This is what happens when you guys rip into them. It was disappointing to see.”
Moving forward, Kirkwood does expect that IndyCar could walk back a little on the threshold instated in Detroit, where cautions are particularly inevitable on the tight streets anyway.
“I think probably by now, they’ve probably proved a point,” he continued on to suggest. “I think everyone will go back like: ‘Hey, that was probably a little bit too much.’ And that’s probably what they expect is for us to rein back.”
On multiple occasions on Sunday, the cars involved in caution-inducing incidents were able to swiftly continue, whether in the race or back to the pits. Essentially, there was a perception that the race was interrupted prematurely and forced to run under yellow without any cars being stranded, as had been the case with Rossi in Indianapolis.
But involved in one of those cases, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL)’s Graham Rahal argued - after being spun by Ganassi Racing (CGR)’s Kyffin Simpson in the Turn 3 hairpin - a caution was necessary regardless, given he was stopped in a blind corner.
“I thought the procedure was good in my case,” third-place-finishing Rahal explained, “particularly because I was behind a blind corner and I backed up, I was kind of guessing… I was just looking to my left just waiting to be T-boned, to be honest.
“So I was okay. I thought all the flags were appropriate today. There was one in Turn 5 I didn’t see; it came and went really fast. But sometimes that happens.
“This place exaggerates the margin for error. It makes all the scenarios worse. It’s so easy to lock up and hit the wall here, even if you’re going easier under yellow flag conditions. It’s slipperier than hell. Anything can happen. You can lock a front and miss a corner. I think Kyle [Novak, race director] and the team played it right today.”
In any case, the rule change led to a more dramatic ‘danger zone’, where drivers in the lead group risk tumbling to the back of the pack if they extend stints longer than their competitors and a caution falls, leading to the closure of pit lane. This has always been a risk of pitting later, though exacerbated by the absence of a safety net of the pits possibly remaining open.
Detroit winner Álex Palou has often tended to run longer stints to better position himself for the end of races. On Sunday, CGR opted to stop the No.10 car earlier than his rivals for race victory, avoiding being caught out by a caution, unlike runner-up-finishing Kirkwood.
“We had prepared and we’re always on the lookout for diving in the pits, so we know the yellows will come quicker than they have,” said Palou’s strategist Barry Wanser. “The impact of getting caught out with only 20 seconds lost out of the pits [in Detroit] is minimised.
“But there will be some tracks where going an extra lap - when we get to Road America, it’s a four-mile track - you’ll be nervous if you’re the last one to pit and stay out later.
“We’re always going to be looking at it. If we’re running up front, our goal is to stay up front - and if we get caught out, it wasn’t our day. We can’t be an early pitter every race because we’re worried about getting caught out by a yellow.”
In the case of Detroit, Kirkwood was naturally perturbed by the timing of some of the late-race yellows. The first of those, for AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci spinning Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay in Turn 5 - both promptly continuing - came just after Palou had pitted and before his own final stop, which cycled Kirkwood from net-second to seventh.
Within a matter of laps on the restart, partly owing to a caution-causing moment between RLL’s Mick Schumacher and Team Penske’s David Malukas in a squabble for second, Kirkwood was back in second place. But further stoppages halted his charge again.
“Two yellows caught me out fighting for the lead, where we almost overcut Palou and then went to make a pass on him,” Kirkwood said. “Yellow comes out right when I have a run on him so I was pretty disappointed with it. But I understand their position.
“You guys all called for yellows so they’re going to throw yellows.”
Kirkwood did not feel he was caught out due to taking undue risk on strategy under the new rules, rather Palou had needed to stop earlier for the final time as his used, softer alternate tyres had started to degrade and Kirkwood was scything into his lead.
“He kind of handcuffed us to be in that position where it’s like: ’Okay, we’ve got to go one or two laps, then we’ve got to pit because we don’t want to get caught out by a yellow,’” Kirkwood assessed. “We almost pit and then we went an extra lap because we had not covered him yet.
“If we got that extra lap in, we would have pit on that lap that the yellow came out and we would have covered him. But that was just circumstantial.
“We can’t just race thinking there might be a caution. That’s not the smart way to race. You’ve got to race your race as if it’s going to be green, which we’ve had a lot of green races in recent years. It would be ridiculous to handcuff yourself to a strategy because you’re hoping on a caution. That’s what guys from mid-pack back do, not the leaders.”
Unquestionably, though, there is now additional jeopardy factoring into the timing of pit stops. For drivers further back in the pack, there is more of an opportunity to be aggressive and gamble on stopping early, which could add to race strategy.
Speaking ahead of the Detroit race, acknowledging that strategic shift, Palou was keen to assert that the change at least brings clarity. In the past, it was not certain that there would always be a delay and the pits would remain open, which caught both Palou and Kirkwood out - both teams uncertain - as the Rossi incident was unfolding early in the month.
“We didn’t know what was going to happen. We didn’t know if it was going to be a yellow or if they were going to wait,” Palou reflected of the previous system. “It was like trying to anticipate what somebody else was going to think. Now, at least it’s clear.
“When everything is consistent for everyone, in the long-term [it is] going to be better so we don’t have to be guessing. You could see there were only four or five cars [on the] Indy road course pitting. We didn’t know: ‘Should we pit?’ It’s better to avoid confusion.
“It’s going to be literally worse for the people that are leading. Now, it’s going to be beneficial to go crazy, pit early and hope for a yellow. At least it’s going to be the same for everyone.”
In making this change, IndyCar has eliminated the optics of competition appearing to be prioritised over safety matters during pit cycles. But while on the better side of the line, the jury seems to remain out on how the series could be able to strike a suitable balance.
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