Written by Archie O’Reilly
The final Friday on a street course for IndyCar in 2024 has concluded as the series makes its only trip north of the border to Toronto. The on-track action, led by one cutaway driver, was marred by two late crashes - one seeing Alexander Rossi sidelined with a broken thumb - as drivers got up to speed with the hybrid system on a street course for the first time.
DIVEBOMB presents some of Friday’s stories from the sole Canadian round…
Herta dominates practice proceedings
Andretti Global’s Colton Herta led the way in practice by 0.2924 seconds ahead of Andretti-allied Felix Rosenqvist for Meyer Shank Racing. He also topped the initial 45-minute all-skate session on the primary tyres before the field split into two 10-minute group sessions, edging out Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou by 0.1898s.
The top six in the combined time sheets are all from Group 1 of the two split sessions, with Marcus Armstrong and Scott Dixon third and fourth for Ganassi, followed by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal and AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci.
Rahal described Herta as “lights out” after the session, while Ferrucci claimed he had been told something about “moon dampers” on the Andretti cars.
Only two drivers, Dale Coyne Racing debutant Hunter McElrea in 18th and Ed Carpenter Racing rookie Christian Rasmussen in 21st, ended up setting their quickest lap in Group 2 due to two red flags punctuating the session.
Participants in the second group, Alex Palou was sixth for Ganassi, then Arrow McLaren’s Rossi (more on him below) and Team Penske duo Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden.
All three Penske cars were in Group 2 and could not record a clean alternate-tyre lap, which could put them on the back foot into qualifying given alternate tyres are only available in Friday practice. The likes of Palou and Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood at least have Group 1 teammates’ learnings to lean on.
McElrea’s debut performance was one of the standouts of the session as he finished 20th in the all-car session, then 10th of 15 cars in the first group session. A first-place finish in the second group session, for which he was eligible as a rookie, showcases his speed even if unrepresentative given the lack of genuine lap times recorded.
Rossi breaks thumb in late crash
Aside from spins for Penske’s Will Power and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino, the session was clean and uninterrupted as the pair did not require external rebooting. But Group 2 caught the brunt of typical street course events and saw one particular piece of misfortune highlight the session.
Rossi was the first of two to come into trouble at Turn 8, entering slightly hot before losing grip and clipping the edge of the tyre barrier and then the wall. The left-front corner of his No.7 Chevy was heavily damaged and Rossi complained about thumb pain from the wheel snapping on the radio.
Rossi was seen and released from the IndyCar Medical Unit after an extended period but was spotted wearing a brace on his hand. The team then released a statement to confirm Rossi, sitting eighth in the championship standings, will be sidelined for the remainder of the weekend with a broken right thumb.
The team will announce its replacement driver in due course. Rossi will have the three-weekend Olympics break to recover in time for Gateway.
More big-team cars enter strife
Ganassi’s Linus Lundqvist had a very similar issue to Rossi at the same corner moments after the session resumed. The Swede instead found himself wedged inside the tyre barrier after also finding his No.8 Honda unable to turn. He emerged unharmed.
Drivers have been led to believe issues at this corner likely come down to the transition from a repavement into older asphalt. Driver confidence under braking has increased but there is a smaller window once they have reached the corner, Rahal hypothesised.
Elsewhere, for the second week running, Marcus Ericsson suffered early-session woes as the Honda engine in his No.28 Andretti entry failed. Following his crash in Iowa Speedway practice, Ericsson again has an uphill climb. He has an extra practice session this weekend and will be grateful that a large chunk of the field did not complete alternate-tyre laps either.
Toronto’s pre-weekend weather woes
Could pre-weekend flooding in Toronto, encompassing parts of the track, have fed into the issues with a lack of grip feeding into accidents at Turn 8? Rahal and Ferrucci believe not.
“It’s the cleanest it’s been, to be honest,” Ferrucci said, to which Rahal agreed. “It looks like they came through and scrubbed the place. It’s awesome.”
Rahal pointed out that it was “job well done” to those involved in getting the place turned around from being essentially underwater in the early part of the week - to the extent Rahal even doubted whether the race would run. Ferrucci also gave credit to the decision to repave the brake zone into Turn 8 and smoothening of a bump in the section beyond.
Assessing the split practice format
At each street course event this season, IndyCar has experimented with the split practice format. It commences with all-skate running for 45 minutes before the field splits off into its two groups - almost like qualifying - for 10 minutes each (barring rookies eligible for both).
It is not a perfect solution as traffic will always exist on tight street courses. And the shorter duration of the group sessions left those in the second group handicapped as the clock continued to tick down after the second red flag. But is there a perfect formula?
“I don’t think so,” Rahal said. “It’s kind of luck of the draw - [red flags] could have easily happened in Group 1. I don’t know if it would really matter. Everybody on red [tyres], you are pushing harder. I don’t know if there’s a perfect formula.
“They can change it how they want - everybody is going to have a different opinion. You get a room full of people, they’re all going to say something different. That’s the challenge IndyCar is facing. Just have to stick to what we’ve got.”
Ferrucci likes the choice made by the series.
“I think it’s a good job they did groups,” he said. “As drivers it’s something we came up with in the off-season. It’s going to work or not. I think it’s way better now than it was. When you have 27 of us, 1.9 miles, all running green at the same time…”
Rahal finished off Ferrucci’s sentence by saying: “It is very busy.”
Hybrid system on a street course
Toronto marks the start of the hybrid system’s street course era - its only outing on this type of track until the season-opening race of 2025 in St. Petersburg.
“I felt a lot busier,” Rahal said. “It’s always bumpy around here, always a challenge. For some reason, at least with our car today, with the struggles that we had, the rear of our car was very weak today. It just felt like the ill effects, the negative effects of the hybrid.
“There was a lot more that I was sort of battling than what I had at Mid-Ohio or Iowa. This is the most I felt that sort of mass and change.”
Ferrucci had a harder time digging into the hybrid’s impact given his No.14 Chevy felt “so scary” in Toronto last year and now feels “amazing” courtesy of the team’s step up that sees him sit 10th in points.
“I can definitely feel the weight of it moving comparatively to last year,” he said. “Going back to 2019, the aeroscreen, all the weight tacked on, is a better reference for me. You can tell the brake zones are a little bit more difficult. Our car, we were really struggling with rotation… actually the first street course where I haven’t had that issue.”
Rahal joked that he needed “to blend” with Ferrucci’s car after struggles that prompted a radio message saying the rear of his car felt like “absolute garbage” despite the speed it produced.
“You’re probably on my setup since you have our engineers,” Rahal quipped to Ferrucci, to which there was a joking response of; “That means you have no excuses.”
Ferrucci went on to elaborate and say “I really love the [hybrid] system” and that the concept of regenerating suits his driving style.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “There is a lot of tune-ability around it… It’s obviously a tough thing. You see struggles on the short oval obviously from qualifying. There’s obviously a lot of unknowns, series trying to overcome a hurdle. What we’re doing, I feel like it’s pretty good.”
“Courage is his middle name”
Not only did Ferrucci edge himself forward to 10th in the championship standings at Iowa, but he delivered the most on-track passes of any driver across the weekend. As Rahal said: “Courage is his middle name if you don’t know Santino.”
With passing uncharacteristically tough amid a partial repave and package worries, it took a lot for Ferrucci as he did.
“All of us want to do that high line practice - that’s super important, not just for revving on the track but getting confidence in your car to go up top,” Ferrucci said. “I tend to run a looser car on the ovals. It benefits more on the top line. I feel like every time, if anyone ever went up there, they understeer and push off, versus for me, I was able to have room on the tools.
“I feel like I’ve got a really good feeling around the short oval on the outside lane and I’m comfortable sliding the car at those speeds. Obviously it will bite you when it bites you. The scary part about going up there, you have to know who you’re racing…
“I have never come back from a lap back - in Race One - and finished as well as I’ve done. That’s honestly a big thing of the team, crew, big stops, good balance adjustments. The first stint in Race One, I think I crashed three or four times in that stint and somehow just was praying to pit.
“I hope that Iowa either repaves the rest of the track or we run more high line practice because that is one of the best tracks on the calendar. We made it unfortunately one of the most boring races I feel like we’ve had all year. The track deserves a lot more than that.”
After a tough first year with Foyt for Ferrucci, both parties are being rewarded for opting for continuity in 2024.
“It’s everything that is making a difference,” Ferrucci said. “It’s not like all of a sudden we have the Penske alliance and it’s plug-and-play and it’s done. If you look at the start of the year, it was really rough. We were nowhere in pre-season testing, terrible in Thermal, not great in Long Beach. All of our testing was abysmal.
“We found more things that we hated about the car than we actually liked. Now we’ve put all our minds to it, it’s starting to actually come together. It’s a complete team effort. It’s everybody and everything that’s starting to gel together now.”
Rahal craving “normal weekend”
Speaking ahead of Iowa, Rahal spoke about the unrepresentative nature of his 2024 results. After qualifying 12th and eighth, with a grid penalty for the first race, Rahal again suffered misfortune due to a tyre failure. But he brought home eighth in the second race.
“The first race is exactly what I said,” Rahal said. “We qualify decent but we get a grid penalty for nine spots, which at Iowa has a very negative effect. Then of course we had a wheel explode, which I’ve never, ever had. Sunday for me was just finally a normal race. There were no real highs, no real lows. It was nice to have that sort of result.
“It’s kind of where I feel like we should have had results like that a lot this season. I thought we had been fairly bitten by the luck bug, made some bad calls, obviously I had the error at Indianapolis getting the pit speed limit penalty which took us from top five, top six to finishing 15th. We haven’t maximised every aspect. It was nice to have a fairly normal weekend.
“Of course being in Hy-Vee’s back yard with everything they did, it was nice to get the team up sort of towards the pointy end of the grid there. My car was great. I wish we could have qualified better, to be honest. I don’t know if I made a change all weekend necessarily. It was great to be racing at the sharp end again.”
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