INDYCAR: St. Petersburg Friday notebook

The first aero kit change of interest for the new season can be found among the Chevys. Some of its teams experimented on Friday by removing curves ramp pieces that mount between the sidepods and rear tire air diverters. Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon was among the Chevy runners to ditch the ramps and spend the day without them, while others, including Team Penske's Will Power, used the ramps and the extra in-fill pieces to generate all the rear downforce possible from the pieces available.

Dixon, who's known for his hatred of understeer, ran without the ramps and carried a lot of angle in his front wing elements to tip the aero balance forward (onto his front tires). Power went in a (comparatively) different direction, and despite the aero kit differences and center of pressure variance, the two ran 1-2 in Friday's final session, with just 0.0142 seconds separating the Antipodeans.

Looking at the photo below, seen from the front of both cars, Dixon's lack of rear tire ramps (LEFT) and steep front wing angles are easy to spot in contrast to Power's car (RIGHT).

With Chevy's new winglets above its rear wheel pods, its aero kit can produce more rearward downforce by a significant margin over the 2015 kit, according to Dixon.

"It's changed the dynamic between high-, mid- and low-speed corners," he told RACER. "It seems like with those things at the back, in the slow-speed corners, the aero balance moves to the back of the car. It's so early, there's a lot of combinations to try. If you look at our car and then Power's car, you couldn't have two more different configurations. They've got it all at the back and all that downforce, and we're the opposite. It's definitely interesting, and for us, we haven't had the parts long enough to say what we need, but we think we're in the right spot and I'm sure [Team Penske] thinks they're in the right spot."

The last time Chevys were seen running without tire ramps, they were in superspeedway configuration (BELOW).

No new parts have been seen (so far) this weekend from either manufacturer. Using Aero Kit Rule 9.2, which allows manufacturers to perform three small updates per season to its aero kit, the Bowtie has used one of its three allotments on new rear wheel pods.

Honda has performed the most extensive aero updates since 2015, using both Rule 9.2 and 9.3 to make sweeping changes to its IndyCar RC/SO bodywork. Under 9.2, it replaced its front wing elements (that mount on top of the stock Dallara mainplane), and new rear wheel pods. Through 9.3, which allows a manufacturer to modify components outside of the three smaller regions (due to a performance shortcoming), IndyCar granted Honda's request to replace its sidepods and rear tire ramps (which are considered one unit by the series), and replaced its front wing endplates and its rear wing endplates.

Chevy has two 9.2 updates left to implement while Honda has one remaining for the rest of the season.

The final note regarding any new RC/SO pieces is per the aero kit rules, new parts do not supersede the previous parts. If a Chevy team wanted to run its 2015 rear tire ramps, rear wheel pods, or any of the older items, they are allowed to choose those items, or the 2016 updates, as desired.

HONORING BRENDA

Honda teams are carrying stickers in memory of Brenda McHale, the wife of T.E. McHale – the brand's longtime public relations and motorsports ace, who died last month. Known as one of the most caring people in the IndyCar paddock, Mrs. McHale's loss has been felt throughout the paddock and her husband has been a steady recipient of hugs and well wishes from many who know how much she meant to the Honda family.

AK INFO OVERLOAD

A release of new aero kit data by Honda late Thursday afternoon has its teams scrambling to revamp their session plans for today. Recent testing at Sebring gave the Japanese brand a chance to capture real-world data to compare and contrast its CFD data for some RC/SO items, and with that new track-based data contradicting the previous data set in numerous areas, teams have been busy coming up with revised St. Pete setups to try during both Friday practice sessions.

The late data dump means that for the second consecutive year, Chevy teams will start the weekend with extensive knowledge of how to extract the most from their RC/SO aero kits, and Honda teams will be starting to scale a rather tall mountain of information before they can reach the same effectiveness or comfort found among their competitors.

Even with the late download, Honda teams made quick work of the info and posted fast laps in both sessions. Jack Hawksworth was second in the first session, just 0.0624 behind the top Chevy, and while the gap grew in the second session – out to 0.3493 for Graham Rahal in P4 – the Ohioan said there's a lot of untapped potential in Honda's aero kit.

"I feel like we're just scratching the surface," Rahal told RACER. "Today we were messing around with wings and stuff. We're a bit trapped; we'll try more stuff when we test at Barber (next week), there's a lot we need to learn, but we take the data we get and Honda's great to use that way. They sent a lot of data to us to save teams money so they don't have to go to the wind tunnel."

HAPPIER HONDA AERO

Continuing with Rahal, he gave an evaluation of the 2015 Sonoma-spec engine Honda teams are using to start the season, and how the revised 2016 aero kit performed at St. Pete compared to last year.

"The engine feels the same, but the aero kit – what they've done – is what we needed," he said. "They reduced the pitch sensitivity. I can definitely feel more confidence rolling speed into the corner without the rear biting me (sliding unexpectedly), which is key. The whole goal was to take this very tiny [aerodynamic performance] window and make it wider."

TIRE NOTES

Here's the list of tire allocations for each team at St. Pete, per Firestone: "8* sets of PRIMARY tires (Blacks). The primary Firestone race tire for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is a similar specification to the 2015 street course primary, following a slight change in construction. This tire will be used at all 2016 street course events.
*Includes five-lap set.

"3 sets of ALTERNATE tires (Reds). Like the primary tire, the alternate tire is a similar specification to the 2015, as Firestone also made a small change to the tire's construction.

"5 sets of RAIN tires. This is the new rain tire specification that was introduced at Mid-Ohio in 2015. It has yet to be run in race conditions."

CHEVY & HONDA ENGINE NOTES

IndyCar's engine regulations gave both manufacturers the freedom to make a number of component changes and redesigns within their 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6s for 2016. Chevy says it gave the "opportunity for the Chevy engineers and technical partners to design and implement upgrades to ports, camshafts, fuel system and installation – including a new, lighter exhaust system and a new [turbo] wastegate with improved actuator cooling and valve head design."

As noted on the Honda side, Honda Performance Development is using its 2015 Sonoma-spec engines to start the season, and according to one brand representatives, some updates have been made to the engine internals in the name of reliability.

TEAM NEWS

• Chip Ganassi Racing is not expected to run more than its four full-time entries at the Indy 500. With Indy ace Ryan Briscoe shifted to CGR's Ford GT sports car program, the Aussie would have been a perfect addition to the team's 500 roster, but with the additional team's resources dedicated to preparing for its Le Mans debut in June, pulling from sportscar program to field another according to managing director Mike Hull, four will be the magic number. "We'll run four," he said. "The only way we'd run a fifth is if it was an outside deal – helping someone."

• KVSH confirmed the return of GEICO to the No. 11 Chevy piloted by Sebastien Bourdais. "We are extremely pleased to announce that GEICO will once again support KVSH Racing for the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season," said team co-owner Jimmy Vasser. "GEICO has been a partner, and in fact a part of our family, for almost a decade including the Indy 500 win in 2013. We look forward to bringing them another outstanding month of May and thank them for their support in our efforts to not only win the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, but an IndyCar championship."