Reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou headed a 15-car IndyCar test in Sebring though less than a second covered the entire field.
Palou sported a new livery on his Ganassi machine for the upcoming season which starts at St Petersburg next week. He lapped the Florida road circuit in a best time of 52.0883 seconds.
“Nowadays we don’t get as many as test days as we would like,” said Palou, who covered 70 laps. “We would always want to have a lot of test days, honestly it’s super-important when we are only one week and a half out of St Pete.
“We want to go through a lot of the engineering list that we’ve been thinking about all off-season. We won’t have enough time, but it’s a way to get the rust off the drivers, all the crew, all the team together and try and get some ideas for St Pete.”
Christian Lundgaard was second fastest for RLL, less than two-hundredths of a second off the twice-champion. Palou’s 2023 title rival Josef Newgarden was third for Penske, also less than a tenth of a second off Palou.
Drivers have a lighter IndyCar chassis for the first races of this year as the Dallara DW12 has been through a weight reduction programme ahead of the integration of hybrid power units later this year.
“I don’t think the cars are going to be crazy-different but they’re slightly lighter, lap times will probably reflect that just marginally,” said Newgarden. “Don’t expect a huge jump, but there’s going to be a little bit of performance there.
“I think for everybody, we’re preparing for the season of two halves. You’re going to start the year in one form and then it’s about how do we adapt to the hybrid change? I think that’s front of mind for everybody.
“We’ve got to be strong in the beginning of the season and we’ve got to be strong through the adaptation with the hybrid system, and that’s the challenge in motorsports. You’re always getting thrown obstacles and that’s going to be the big one this year.”
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IndyCar Sebring test day one in pictures
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