Team Penske led the unofficial times during the final day of private testing at NOLA as 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power secured the fastest lap among the 14 cars in attendance.
The Aussie’s lap of 77.9 seconds was 1.1 seconds faster than his best from Tuesday, and across the field, which was comprised of eight Chevy-powered cars and six Hondas, times dropped significantly with Firestone rubber coating the circuit.
Power followed new Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud, who led Tuesday’s times, and many drivers waited until the final minutes of the afternoon session to use the cooler conditions and fresh tires to post qualifying simulations which also improved their positions.
Tuesday saw Chevy claim the top four spots, and on Wednesday, Honda made significant increases with Graham Rahal (ABOVE) posting the second-fastest lap of the test.
“For us, it’s just nice to have a smooth, solid day,” said Rahal, who skipped the late qualy sims. “We needed that to continue to work on the car. We got ourselves to a place where we haven’t been in a while with a setup that allowed me to attack. Before, it would bite me if I tried that. Now, it’s under control, and will take it. Today, I could squeeze a little bit of extra pace out of it. It’s nice to be the fastest Honda.”
Rahal also bid farewell to the current Dallara bodywork that will be replaced with new aero kits when the series returns to Louisiana to race on April 12.
“We’re going to come back here with something completely different,” he continued. “This is the last time we’ll test using this bodywork, so it was nice to run quick for the final time in the 2014 configuration.”
Penske driver Juan Montoya found more speed on Wednesday, and said they concentrated more on adding to their depth of knowledge than worrying about setting impressive lap times.
“The main focus for us is to learn,” he noted. “We experimented with everything we wanted to and that’s all we worried about. We tried a bunch of things.”
KVSH Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais (ABOVE) worked through the team’s long list of test items in a short amount of time after losing an engine during the morning session.
“We worked all afternoon – got out around 2 – and made good progress,” he said. “There was only one thing we didn’t get to try, which says a lot about my guys. The engineers have been working on a lot of theoretical things, so it was good to test them and correlate the data.”
Bourdais heaped plenty of praise on Stefano Coletti, his KV Racing teammate for the test, who was quick both days and apparently fit right into the Indy 500-winning team.
“All the guys coming from Europe who’ve been good in GP2 are quick, and within three runs, Stefano was right there,” he noted. “We both ended up doing a 78.7; his feedback is very similar to mine, and it would be good for the team if he joins us. He’s a good kid as well.”
(LEFT: James Hinchcliffe wound up fourth for SPM.)
The Frenchman also shared his thoughts about the track and whether it might produce good racing when the series returns with high-downforce aero packages.
“We have the potential to have a good race,” he remarked. “I’m a little concerned, though, because it’s grippy; there’s not a lot of room to try Plan B stuff – going around the outside, or whatever. It feels like a fast Portland, with better pavement. It’s hard to predict how it will race, but it’s a fun place. I think we’ll put on a good show – we’re hauling ass.”
Coletti tested with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports late last year, and told RACER the move to NOLA’s long corners was quite taxing.
“This track is very challenging compared to Sebring where we tested last time,” he said. “It’s very physically challenging; I was drained when I got to the hotel Tuesday night! The team gave me a great car to drive and I had a good time working with my engineer (Matt Curry). And with Sebastien and his experience, and his similar driving style, we could apply what he was learning from his car.”
Up next for Coletti is to see if he can come to terms with KV to race alongside Bourdais in 2015.
“I love the States, I really enjoy the atmosphere, and we’re working on it,” he said. “I enjoyed working with the team. I love challenges and hope I can stay here and race.”
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports also impressed with James Hinchcliffe, who left the test early, and James Jakes, who had been out of the cockpit for more than a year before joining SPM at NOLA. Jakes made the greatest overnight improvement in times, carving a full 1.9 seconds off of his best from Tuesday.
Wednesday’s times (unofficial) with the decrease from Tuesday in parenthesis
1. 77.9, Will Power, Team Penske-Chevy (-1.1s)
2. 78.1, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda (-1.4s)
3. 78.3, Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske-Chevy (-0.6s)
4. 78.3, James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda (-1.2s)
5. 78.4, James Jakes, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda (-1.9s)
6. 78.4, Juan Montoya, Team Penske-Chevy (-0.8s)
7. 78.4, Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport-Honda (-1.1s)
8. 78.5, Carlos Munoz, Andretti Autosport-Honda (-0.7s)
9. 78.6, Helio Castroneves, Team Penske-Chevy (-0.9)
10. 78.6, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport-Honda (-0.7s)
11. 78.7, Luca Filippi, CFH Racing-Chevy (-1.3s)
12. 78.7, Stefano Coletti, KV Racing-Chevy (-0.7)
13. 78.7, Sebastien Bourdais, KVSH Racing-Chevy (-0.4)
14. 79.0, Josef Newgarden, CFH Racing-Chevy (-1.1s)
Comments