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Indy and Hybrids

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Jericoke:
I watched some of the qualifying for Indy today and was struck how useless their hybrid system is.  I don't know the details but I assume it's similar to the F1 system with an internal combustion engine augmented by a battery charger by regenerative braking.

All well and good until you realize oval racing doesn't really involve braking.

So over the four laps required for Indy qualifying, the drivers had access to a battery good for about 1/2 a lap.

How is this going to work over race distance?  1/2 lmao of push to pass charged up only with every pit stop?

Interestingly pole was won by Schwartzman, a rookie, who has sportscar experience. I don't know his exact race history, but I wonder if he has hybrid experience other openwheelers, such as Takuma Sato, don't have.

I expect mastery of this new system might determine who wins the 500

cosworth151:
It's even worse on the street/road tracks. The nimble 1,500 pound DW12 is now a 2,000 pound barge. You can't increase the weight by a third, most of it in places that don't help the balance at all, and expect the car to perform as well as it did.

lkjohnson1950:
I don't remember who it was, but during qualifying sims on Friday there was a driver who was recharging his hybrid system every lap. He would charge down the back straight and discharge down the front. So, it can't just recharge under braking, because he certainly wasn't braking.

John S:
What I found extraordinary when watching Indy Quali runs is that speed drops off each lap they drive even when they are emptying the hybrid on the last lap.  :confused:

Surely the cars get lighter each lap travelled as they burn off fuel so the tyres must be made of chocolate.

lkjohnson1950:
It's partly tires and partly engine heat build up. Fi uses tires that don't last a full lap at peak, why should IndyCar soft tires last 4 laps? The fall off is fractions of a second, putting it in MPH makes it look worse than it really is. 230 is 39.130 sec, 229 is 39.301 sec.

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