INDYCAR: 2018 wind tunnel work under way

The Verizon IndyCar Series completed initial wind tunnel testing of the 2018 universal aero kit prior to unveiling the sketches of its anticipated shape.

"The renderings were hand drawn a few months ago as initial concepts, and one of the things that was important before we showed anything today here at the Detroit Auto Show was to validate the effectiveness of the bodywork," IndyCar competition president Jay Frye told RACER. "Ten days ago or so, we did a scale model test of the bodywork in the wind tunnel and the numbers came back very encouraging."

Rather than release sketches and then test the bodywork, Frye's team wanted to ensure the shift from an overhead air intake and widespread use of topside wing elements to low-slung bodywork and a drastic reduction in wing profiles met IndyCar's performance criteria.

"Now that we believe the aesthetics are correct based on hitting performance targets in the wind tunnel, we were confident in showing the sketches of where the car – the bodywork – is headed," Frye continued. "There are some things in the sketches that will be on the car and some that will not, but overall, we wanted to be sure the performance was there with the low engine cover and all of the changes we've wanted to see happen before giving a taste of what the final package will look like."

IndyCar is saving the final bodywork shape for a public reveal at the Indy 500 in May. Frye says that shape will be a result of input and buy-in from the series stakeholders.

"Last year we did some testing at Mid-Ohio and at Phoenix, took those ideas and the data we had from that, then came up with the aesthetics of what we thought the new bodywork should look like," he said. "We came up with a list of things we thought should be considered, then engaged our [engine] manufacturers and our teams and partners to get their feedback, and with all of that put together, we started down the path we're on now."