IndyCar had its first wet race in nearly three years at the Indianapolis Grand Prix circuit on Saturday. Crucially, it was the first wet race since the introduction of the Aeroscreen safety structure for the 2020 season.
Visibility in the second half of the race became an issue for a number of drivers as heavy rain fell over Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Moments after Colton Herta won the race under yellow flags, Christian Lundgaard ran into the back of Callum Ilott out of the final corner – with Lundgaard admitting that he could not see Ilott’s car because of the spray in front of him.
After the race, comments by many drivers about the performance of the device brought the Aeroscreen’s wet-weather visibility under scrutiny. Former IndyCar driver and four-time ChampCar champion Sebastien Bourdais shared his views on Twitter after the race, explaining his view that the actual screen should be removed for road and street circuits.
“Oh boy. Is it when I come out and write, I told you so?,” Bourdais posted. “Don’t get me wrong. Never argued the need for the aero screen at speedways and superspeedways. But initially, talks were supposed to be open to use the halo part only for road and street because of heat and rain visibility issues. Dismissed in an instant by the man.”
Conor Daly explained a troubling phenomena he encountered on his way to a fifth-place finish: “I’ve never seen anything like that before,” he said. “It was like the water just stayed in the centre of the screen. And I don’t know why, but even as you went faster – which you would hope it would clear – it didn’t.
“Obviously, this is very much a scientific test run. Obviously, we have a lot of data to go through with the series, and I’m sure [IndyCar president] Jay Frye will look at it as well. And he hates when I talk about the Aeroscreen, but I’m just describing what I saw. That’s all.
“I used to race in…