Pagenaud: “A shame” that sims have replaced track time in IndyCar

Ahead of IndyCar’s two-day test at Thermal Club this week, Pagenaud of Meyer Shank Racing was asked what he hopes to achieve on Thursday and Friday.

“What I can tell you is we have a plan of things we've tried on the simulator,” said the 2016 IndyCar champion and 2019 Indy 500 winner. “With no testing, honestly, we do a lot more simulator these days than we ever have done before.

“That's the truth for the teams. That's where the money goes now. We don't have access to racetracks with the regulation. For the drivers it's a bit of a shame. We're losing touch with the tracks and cars, but that's just the way it's going.

“We've done a lot of work on simulators with the designs, several packages we think might be better for the problems that we had last year. One of the main issues was tire wear, which was my main problem in races.

“We are going to evaluate what we found on the simulator and make sure it translates in real life. I'm hoping it really does, because with two days of testing, if it doesn't work, then I'm going to have the same problem I had last year. I've got a lot of hope on this test and a lot of expectation.

“The track itself, the corners are quite different, the radius and the way the track is, than what we see on our street course and road course. But it's okay. We can do long runs and check the tire energy and see that. That's going to be the job.”

Pagenaud said the reduction in testing particularly hurts IndyCar teams trying to catch up, such as Meyer Shank, especially given the variability of the tire compounds from track to tracl,

“We went to test last year twice,” he said. “[What we discovered] translated to some tracks but not all tracks. It translated to a street course where we were extremely strong, but didn't translate to the road course.

“We're going to work with the road course tire here, which is better for us because that's tire wear, which we're having a big issue with. Firestone brings a different type of tire for each track. It makes it very difficult for us when we go testing to figure out what the tires really need.

“The tire is the most important thing on the racecar, especially when you're in a series like IndyCar right now that is so close. We know the car so well that the margin for improvements are very small. If you can just extract a little bit more out of the tire, you're going to have a better advantage. Penske did that last year, they figured out what it was. We didn't. The goal for us is to figure that out with the little bit of testing we get.

“It's tough. The difference between sportscars and IndyCar is sportscars you can test as much as you want, like we did this winter. You kind of know what you have going into the first race. IndyCar you get two days. What you got is what you got. That makes it very difficult and very reliant on the development that has been done by the engineers.”

Pagenaud helped Meyer Shank Acura win the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona in both 2022 and last weekend, and team founder Michael Shank said that the French veteran drove the stint of his life. Asked if the high of victory stays with him or could be crushed if MSR-Honda has a bad IndyCar test, Pagenaud responded: “No, it won't be crushed in a day if something goes wrong because it's work that I've done. I've built on that work all last year. Unfortunately I didn't get to show it to you as much as I wanted with results. But in the background, I feel like, yeah, there's something there. The potential is amazing.

“It's going to take a little bit of time. You've got to be patient. But you have to know how good you are inside and you have to believe in it. Certainly when results start showing, then all of a sudden the rise is even stronger and it makes you feel really good. So that is a big positive.

“Certainly I feel on top of the world right now. I'm riding the wave and I'm going to use it to my advantage. It's a perfect timing because with my preparation, it's coming at a perfect time.”

Pagenaud said that his second straight Rolex 24 triumph was psychologically, “Big, massive”. He went on: “It gave me confidence that my training was good, that mentally speaking I'm working on the right things, that my influence within the team is going in the right direction.

“Helio and myself are closer than ever, helping the team in many ways. It's good because it's showing Mike and Jim that our input is also helping putting us on the map. Everything is going according to plan, even better. I'm full of confidence, full of happiness because the work I've done is paying off.”