Will Power feels the reintroduction of a single aerokit package would benefit the racing in the Verizon IndyCar Series, should series officials decide to go in that direction.
The Team Penske driver has seen at first hand how the standard of racing has declined since Chevrolet and Honda have introduced their own aerokits, with the racing seemingly better and easier to follow and pass prior to their introduction at the beginning of 2015.
Power has heard murmurs and groans from the Honda racers in 2016 in particular as they appear to struggle in comparison to the Chevrolet racers, and the Australian insists it is normal for those who are struggling to complain.
“It’s pretty much what you’d expect,” said Power to Motorsport.com. “The guys who struggled with the aerokit want to go back to a spec kit, the guys who got it right want to keep that advantage.
“I guess if going to a standard kit saves the teams money, then fine. But I think the real good thing about it is that it would be a chance for the series to improve the racing.”
Power feels the little winglets, which both the Chevrolet and Honda aero packages have in great number, are part of the problem, with issues currently arising when following cars that makes overtaking extremely tricky.
“Whoever designs the spec kit has got to understand what makes the current car so bad in dirty air,” said Power. “I always thought it was the little winglets which is definitely a part of the problem.
“But the front wing is about 70 percent responsible for the pattern of the downforce in the way it directs the air over the car, over the rear and pulls air out from the floor.
“The front wing endplates on the old [2012-‘14] DW12 basically did nothing, and we had some of the best racing IndyCar’s ever had. But now, if you get behind someone, the disturbed air over the front wing causes you to lose rear grip too.
“Everyone thinks that running in dirty air causes the front end to wash out, but actually it affects the whole car and you just can’t follow someone close in fast or medium-speed corners since the aerokits came in.”
Power believes that should IndyCar revert back to a single aero kit, they should ditch all the winglets, and they should not worry about aero efficiency should it improve the racing.
“If everyone agrees on a spec kit, IndyCar needs to really use the chance to get something that looks good, doesn’t have all this winglet crap stuck all over it, and doesn’t create all this dirty air,” said Power.
“I don’t think the fans will mind if an aerokit is less efficient, if it improves the racing and looks great.”
