INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — IndyCar officials hope this week's rule change on the push-to-pass button creates more intrigue in Saturday's Indianapolis Grand Prix.
Whether it works will depend on how fast three-time defending race winner Alex Palou and the other starters adapt — and, naturally, how much risk they're willing to take on the first lap of the race.
The move comes in the wake of last month's software failure at Long Beach when a dozen drivers “illegally”
used extra turbo boost during a midrace restart. That prompted series officials to make the modification that allows drivers to use their push-to-pass on all restarts — once the race has started and they've reached the alternate start-finish line in Turn 11 on the first lap. An early push will result in a penalty — even if there is another malfunction.
And that's caused confusion in Gasoline Alley.
“If I push it and it works because someone else does a mistake, it’s my fault? Yes?” Palou asked, jump starting a several-minute long debate between the top five drivers in the standings. “I didn’t read the rule, sorry.”
Drivers will still get 200 total seconds of green-flag racing to give their cars a boost of about 60 horsepower throughout the race though the button is not supposed to be operable until they pass the alternate start-finish line, potentially making the race into Turn 11 as harrowing as the first turn of the race. Then drivers can allocate their turbo boost however they choose around Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
The change essentially eliminates a possible repeat of the 2024 controversy that cost two-time series champ Josef Newgarden a season-opening victory at St. Petersburg when officials determined he used push-to-pass on a restart.
At Long Beach, nearly half the field took advantage of the software error. Others insisted they weren't even aware the push-to-pass button was working on the restart.
During last week's test session on Indy's 2.5-mile oval, Santino Ferrucci told reporters he only realized the button worked when he tried to fend off Marcus Armstrong's pass on a Lap 61 restart. Ferrucci said he tried it and continued using it. Neither Armstrong nor Ferrucci were penalized and Palou wasn't either even though he said used it three times on the restart. Palou wound up winning his third race of the season.
“Let’s set the record straight,” Kyle Kirkwood said. “Everybody would have used it if they’d known it was active. Every driver would have. I wish I’d have known it was on. I would have used it.”
On Saturday, everyone has — or should have — a strategy for how to deal with the new rule.
Palou, the four-time series champ from Spain, begins race weekend as the favorite. He has a 17-point lead over Kirkwood, an American, after winning the last two races, has six straight top five finishes at Indy including last year's sweep of the grand prix and Indianapolis 500, and he's trying to become just the second driver in Brickyard history to win the same race four straight times.
The only other drive with four straight wins is seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher. He won the U.S. Grand Prix every year from 2003-06 and his son, Mick, is scheduled to make his Indy debut Saturday albeit on a differently configured road course.
Palou had the fastest lap in both of Friday’s practice sessions, posting a top speed of 124.953 mph in the morning and a best lap of 124.632 in the afternoon before rain arrived at the track. Kirkwood had the second fastest lap in the afternoon, 124.443, as he tries to change his road-course reputation.
“So why do I suck on road courses?” Kirkwood joked Thursday. “That’s a good question. Appreciate that. Quite honestly, we just haven’t been that good on road courses. That’s been across all of our cars in recent years. But Barber was much better. I can’t say there’s been any other ones, but I feel like we’re constantly improving.”
And getting a little power boost on Saturday's restarts certainly won't hurt.
“You might want to save it a little bit more and maybe not use it as much on in-and-out laps, trying to overtake people knowing if a restart comes at any point, you need to have it, or else you’re going to get passed,” Kirkwood said. “So people might be hoarding it a little bit more.”
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