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| Felix Rosenqvist taking a break between testing sessions at the 2-Day IMS Open Test in his new Chevrolet-powered Arrow McLaren SP Dallara. This will be the first year he will compete in a Chevrolet-powered NTT INDYCAR SERIES ride. He posted a 16th fastest time in the 2-Day IMS Open Test. Image Credit: Chris Jones via NICS (2021) |
Chevrolet Sets Table For 2021 And Gives Hints On Future Hybrid Engine Evolution Development
A pre-season NTT INDYCAR SERIES ZOOM Call was held in advance of the first
race of the 2021 championship season. The call, held with members of the
world press, was fairly open-ended and highlighted current developments on
the 10 year old turbo-charged 2.2 liter specification racing engine, and
gave additional information on the developments of the 2023 Hybrid 2.4 liter
specification racing engine.
It was stressed that nothing will be left on the table for 2021 or 2022 in
terms of continued evolution of improving performance power bands and
reliability on the current 2.2 liter power plants as the all new 2.4 liter
specification comes forward for 2023.
CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES - INDY GP OF ALABAMA - APRIL 17-18 -
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK - LEEDS. ALABAMA
CHEVROLET ZOOM CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT - APRIL 15, 2021
MARK STIELOW, DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT COMPETITION FOR INDYCAR, IMSA,NHRA
(CHEVROLET AND CADILLAC)
ROB BUCKNER, CHEVROLET RACING ENGINEERING PROGRAM MANAGER FOR INDYCAR
CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT - MEDIA VIA ZOOM AND DISCUSSED OUTLOOK FOR NEW INDYCAR
SEASON STARTING WITH THIS WEEKEND AT BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK, THE INDY 500
AND OTHER FUTURE ENGINE DEVELOPMENT TOPICS.
THE MODERATOR:
First of all, some introductions of two people who you probably have heard
of but may not have met yet, we’re going to make that right today.
The first is Mark Stielow, the General Motors Director of Motorsport
Competition Engineering for the INDYCAR Series, IMSA, and NHRA for Chevrolet
and Cadillac.
We also have Rob Buckner, the Chevrolet Engineering Program Manager for the
INDYCAR Series, as well.
Mark, let’s start with you. Please talk to us about what your overall
expectations and goals are for the Chevrolet INDYCAR program ahead of the
opening weekend at Barber.
MARK STIELOW:
“I joined the team back in September and am getting up to speed. We kind of
got INDYCAR racing going after the COVID-19 hibernation we did; so, I got to
the last couple of races in the season and then went into the off-season.
There was a lot of work done by our engine partners and our teams to get us
ready for this season. And I think we’re going to have some strong teams and
I think things are going to look pretty good for us this year.”
Rob, it’s been a long time since we’ve been in action, but you were in
Indianapolis recently for the open test. Talk with us about some of the
highlights of that session and what you think we can look forward to in the
opening couple of rounds.
ROB BUCKNER:
“Thank you everyone for taking the time to talk with us today. I know a lot
of familiar faces, and miss seeing you on pit lane. We’ve been so limited.
We used to do these types of things in person and now everything is a video
call. Thank you for everything you have done to try to cover motorsports
during COVID-19 and people not being at the track. Going into this year,
it’s always great for us when we can run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Track time testing there is very limited. We had a great two days there.
We’ve already run over 8500 miles on our 2021 race engines and 4900 of those
came from Indianapolis. So, we really ran a lot of miles over those two days
in preparation. I think we learned a lot. We’re always working with our
teams. Our engine program is always looking for any opportunity to improve
and we’re excited to get going.”
Q&A’s:
Q.) A RECENT GENERAL COMMENT BY PENSKE DRIVERS WAS THAT THERE SEEMS TO BE A
LITTLE BIT MORE TORQUE OUT OF THE HONDA ENGINE OVER THE CHEVY ENGINE. WHAT
IS YOUR VIEW ON THAT EVEN THOUGH WE ALL KNOW THE ENGINE PERFORMANCES ARE
EXTREMELY TIGHT AND EXTREMELY CLOSE?
ROB BUCKNER:
“Yeah, it’s interesting. The 2.2 liters have been in competition for 10
years. And I think over that time, both us and our competitors have
recognized and addressed some weaknesses that we’ve had, individually. Or,
sometimes we’ve got a slight advantage somewhere and they always catch up.
The general thought is we’ve always had a very strong top end and they’ve
always had a very strong mid-range. I think we’ve kind of converged to a
very similar torque delivery but all we can control is our own power profile
going into this weekend, and I think we’ve got a very robust package for
Barber.
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| Team Penske's Will Power is looking forward to getting back on the track in his Verizon sponsored 5G machine. He's had great success at Barber Motorsports Park and he believes this season opener will be his. Image Credit: Joe Skibinski (2021) |
To Will’s comments, the surface has a lot of grip. A lot of times at road
courses we’re struggling to put power down and Barber is kind of unique in
that I think this weekend, the car and the tire is going to be able to take
all that the engine can give it. And that’s what we’ve been preparing to do.
I think we’ll be in a pretty good place come this weekend.”
Q.) YOU COVER ALL THE OTHER MAJOR RACING CIRCUITS HERE IN AMERICA, WHETHER
IT BE IMSA OR NHRA OR NASCAR OR WHATEVER; WHAT DO YOU SEE AS YOURBIGGEST
CHALLENGES OVERALL?
MARK STIELOW:
“The biggest challenges that we’re working on right now is you know, folks
spend a lot of time on Sports Car racing. So, the GTLM class is going to
converge into GT Daytona Pro. So, we’ve been working a lot on a conversion
package for that. And there has been a lot of investigation, a lot of work
has been done, on our end studying the LMDh proposal.
LMDh is very interesting to us and there’s going to be a lot of
manufacturers in that space, so we’ve been heavily looking at that. So,
there’s a lot of activity going on in that space. My counterpart, Eric
Warren, has got all the NASCAR stuff and with all the work going into NG7
car, and with that getting ready to launch next year, there’s a lot of
activity in that space also. So, there’s going to be some exciting stuff
going on in motorsports in the next few years.”
Q.) ON THE CHEVROLET DETROIT GRAND PRIX WEEKEND, IT’S BEEN A BIG
INCONVENIENCE WITH THE RE-SCHEDULING OF EVENTS THIS PAST YEAR. RECENTLY
WE’VE LEARNED DETROIT WILL BE THE TRADITIONAL IMSA/INDYCAR DOUBLEHEADER AND
A HOMETOWN DEBUT ON THE CORVETTE C8.R. WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THAT
WEEKEND TO SHOWCASE GM RACING’S TECHNOLOGY WITH CADILLAC, CORVETTE, AND
CHEVROLET?
MARK STIELOW:
“It’s always good to play on a home field. We’ll be racing in the shadow of
the Ren Cen. In my previous jobs at GM, I’ve actually driven some of the
parade cars down there. So, it’s nice to run that event and for us to do
well. Unfortunately, our competitors won’t be showing up to race against the
Corvettes, so we’ll be running exhibition only. There are some prior
commitments that Porsche has that they can’t get out of, so we’ll be running
the Corvette exhibition. And the Cadillacs will be there strong and INDYCAR
also. It’s always a fun event. I’m hoping that COVID-19 turns around and we
can have it be a well-attended event, but that’s still kind of up in the air
right now.”
Q.) ONE OF THE BIG QUESTIONS WE’VE GOTTEN SINCE LAST YEAR’S INDY 500 IS WILL
WE HAVE CHEVY BACK, HOPEFULLY ON EQUAL TERMS; MAKING IT A TRUE QUESTION MARK
AS TO HOW THE 2021 EVEN WILL PLAY OUT. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WERE ABLE TO
TAKE FROM THE OPEN TEST HERE THAT MIGHT LEAD BOWTIE FANS TO HOPE AND BELIEVE
THAT THERE COULD BE A REALLY HARD AND COMPETITIVE RUN HERE IN MAY THAT MIGHT
LEAD INTO A REVERSAL OF FORTUNE FROM LAST YEAR’S EVENT?
ROB BUCKNER:
“I think so. I always joke with our group that hope is a very bad plan. So,
we’ve had to really dig deep and try to look at where we missed it last
year. Collectively, our groups have never worked better together when you
look across the Chevrolet performance team with Ilmor and Pratt & Miller
and everyone at Chevy, and then our race teams. I can’t thank them enough
for all that they’ve contributed in the off-season. And we didn’t play a
blame game. We just left there frustrated with our overall performance and
have done everything we could since late August there to address it for this
year. I think that the cars have changed enough that it’s kind of a re-set
from 2020 when you look at the new aero parts that INDYCAR is introducing
there. It seemed like at the test that guys could follow closer is maybe a
little easier to pass with the barge boards and some of the different floor
configurations that INDYCAR has come up with. But that was a pretty
favorable day. It was cool and cloudy. I’m sure if we have a 95-degree sunny
race day it’s still going to be really difficult. So, we’ve put a lot of
emphasis on how we are going to qualify better, how are we going to get the
most out of our engine package; like I said, we’ve visited every area of
performance and tried to polish on everything. Our group is very
detail-oriented, so I think we’re going to have a strong package.”
Q.) THE END OF 2022 IS THE END OF THE CURRENT INDYCAR ENGINE REGULATIONS.
YOU ARE PROBABLY WORKING RIGHT NOW ON THE NEW ENGINE CONFIGURATION. BUT FOR
THIS CURRENT ENGINE, IS THERE STILL DEVELOPMENT GOING ON?
ROB BUCKNER:
“Yeah, we’re very fortunate to have a lot of depth and talent and motivated
people. So, there’s still things we can work on in the 2.2 liter. There are
some areas that are always open. And we’re running 2.4 liters now. We have
our first engines on the dyno. We’re very happy with where that program is
at and we’re multi-tasking. It’s very busy times for the engine program. We
still have to go to the track. We’ve got to race the 2.2 liter approximately
32 to 34 more times. We’re not looking to give up anything there. And then
we’ve got to have a prom debut in 2023 as well. So, the engine-side of
things is flat out at the moment.”
Q.) JOSEF NEWGARDEN WAS TALKING LAST MONTH ABOUT HOW THE COVID RESTRICTIONS
HAVE REQUIRED THEM TO WORK SMARTER AND MORE EFFICIENT AND THAT THEY
STRUGGLED WITH THAT LAST YEAR AND WEREN’T ABLE TO USE OPTIMIZATION ACROSS
ALL THE CARS. FROM A CHEVROLET PERSPECTIVE, HOW ARE YOU APPROACHING THESE
CHALLENGES?
ROB BUCKNER:
“COVID-19 has affected motorsports and everyone in the paddock kind of the
same. We don’t look at it as an excuse that we have less track time because
it’s the same for all the competitors. There has been a trend in the last
five years that track time is reduced and you have to roll off the trailer
very, very strong. If you’re completely lost Friday morning or Saturday
morning, it doesn’t make that much difference. But overall, we’re all
recognizing come P1, you really need to be in the window, you need to be
close; and then just polish on it. Ideally, you don’t make many changes. So,
the pre-event preparation, I think, circuit by circuit, how we use our DIL
simulator working with teams and drivers before we ever get to the race
track; all those things were already trending in this direction, and then
with the COVID-19 reductions in track time, it’s really just amplified it. I
don’t think anyone would have ever thought two years ago that NASCAR would
only have really four practice sessions in an entire year. So, even within
NASCAR, that’s the extreme; and then specific to INDYCAR, we have a
reduction but not an elimination of practice. So, we still have an
opportunity to learn and improve; especially at street courses where you
cannot test. But Jay Frye and his group have done a great job of putting
together a pretty logical plan of street courses. They’re mostly three-day
events. Road courses are two days. If you really struggle at a road course
you can test there in the off-season. So, I think we’re really pleased with
how INDYCAR has handled this and the direction that it’s going. For us, it
just amplifies the work you do before getting to the race track really
matters and needs to be correct.”
Q.) WHAT’S THE BREAKDOWN BETWEEN ILMOR ENGINEERING AND GM IN TERMS OF WHAT
DO THEY DO AND WHAT DO YOU DO ON THE ENGINE? AND WHEN IT COMES TO THE HYBRID
THAT’S COMING IN, WHO IS GOING TO DO THE HYBRID PIECE? WHO IS GOING TO
INTEGRATE IT?
ROB BUCKNER:
“Our technical group tries really hard to not operate in silos or individual
company-type thinking. So, we all work for the Chevrolet program. We’re all
pulling in the same direction all the time. So, we really blur those lines.
A lot of times the collaboration amongst the group has been spectacular. And
even breaking down, just beyond the engine program, of bringing in the race
teams to these conversations and where we want things to progress over time.
So, I would like to think, internally, that Ilmor and GM are all just one
engine program working together to try to have the best package we can.
There are certainly strengths Ilmor has that we don’t have and vide-versa.
We have some analysis and tools that as General Motors and Chevrolet is very
useful. And Ilmor is a very competent, excellent engine supplier in
motorsports. So, I think we try to put all that together and that makes us
have an overall really good engine package.”
Q.) HOW POSSIBLE IS IT TO TEST THE 2.4 LITER ENGINE WITHOUT THE HYBRID
SYSTEM HOOKED UP? ARE YOU ABLE TO PUT A FIGURE ON HOW MUCH THE INCREASED
DISPLACEMENT OF THE ENGINE AND HOW MUCH WOULD COME FROM THE HYBRID?
MARK STIELOW:
“On the hybrid-side we could emulate that. Before we get the hybrid unit, we
can run some simulations on our dyno to simulate that. On the power-side of
the equation, I’ll let Rob answer that. I haven’t really been in all the
details of that yet.”
ROB BUCKNER:
“I think somewhat lost in the 2.4 liter transition is the fact that we’re
going up in base boost as well. So, the easy thing is to think we’re going
up roughly 10 percent in displacement. We’re going to go up 10 percent in
power; but also, we’re going to start operating at 1.6 bars, the standard
for street courses instead of 1.5 bar. And you put all that together with
the hybrid unit, I think fans will be pleased with the power projections and
where the engine programs are headed overall. To answer your question, we
can’t run a 2.4 liter with a hybrid. Once you delete an alternator it is
gone for good. So, I think all of us, INDYCAR, Honda, Chevrolet are all in
for the hybrid unit to run the 2.4 liter is going to be required, not
optional.”
Q.) THE 900 HP TARGET AT INDYCAR, WHEN DO YOU THINK WE’LL SEE THE ENGINES
HITTING THAT MAGIC MARK?
ROB BUCKNER:
“I’m not sure. I think a lot of that depends on the finalized specs of the
hybrid unit, which is really INDYCAR’s area of development during this. On
the engine-side, we’re just going to focus on getting all we can out of the
2.4 liter at all the various race levels of boost.”
Q.) IN THE PAST YOU HAVE USED THE INDYCAR ENGINE PROGRAM TO HELP DEVELOP
THINGS LIKE DIRECT INJECTION TECHNOLOGY AND TO RUN ENGINEERS THROUGH. WITH
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE IN POWERING CARS, IS THAT STILL THE MAIN PURPOSE FOR
BEING PART OF A SERIES LIKE INDYCAR?
MARK STEILOW:
“Yeah, my counterpart, Russ O’Blenes, has the propulsion-side of
motorsports, and there are a lot of young engineers in that space that
learned about racing and there’s also joint development work being done both
at Ilmor like Rob talked about Ilmor and GM up at Pontiac for motorsports
powertrain development. So, there is still a lot of technology transferred
between the two. It’s still a viable training ground for us to learn more
things and for us to develop people, processes, and tools to become better.
General Motors and Chevrolet are still going to keep on making internal
combustion engines for a while; so, we’re going to keep on pushing it as far
as we can.”
Q.) I WON’T ASK ALL THE NAMES OF THE TEAMS AND ENTRIES YOU’LL BE ENGAGED
WITH FOR THE INDY 500, BUT CAN YOU TELL US THE ANTICIPATED FINAL NUMBER OF
CHEVY-POWERED ENTRIES? AND IF YOU ARE UN-SIGNING TEAMS OR IF THERE ARE STILL
POSSIBILITIES FOR MORE TO BE HAD FOR THE MONTH OF MAY?
ROB BUCKNER:
“That’s a very good question given the time of year. I think that’s the most
cars last week we’ve ever run at Indy during an open test which, for our
group…. It’s a difficult expansion when you go from running 10 to 11
full-time cars and then I think last week we had15 and then that’s kind of
an incremental step. We expect we may add another one. We’re not completely
sure. But it’s getting close to crunch time, so we’re close to finalizing.
For us it’s really do we have the parts and the people to do it. And if race
teams put something together, we try to be good partners with our teams; and
we’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”
Q.) REGARDING 2023 HYBRIDIZATION AND INDYCAR, GENERAL MOTORS HAS NOT
CONFIRMED ANYTHING IN REGARD TO IMSA AND LMDH, BUT BY CHANCE BOTH CLASSES
WILL INDEED BE GOING HYBRID AT THE SAME TIME. AT LEAST WHILE PLANNING TO BE
IN INDYCAR, CONSIDERING BEING IN IMSA, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO AS A
MANUFACTURER KNOWING THAT NASCAR IS ALSO LOOKING AT HYBRIDIZATION? WHAT DO
YOU DO AND HOW DO YOU TREAT ALL THESE POSSIBILITIES FOR THE PLACES WHERE YOU
ARE RACING, COULD BE RACING, SWITCHING TO THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY WITH POSSIBLY
EACH ONE A BIT DIFFERENT THAN THE OTHER? DO YOU WORK WITH THESE SANCTIONING
BODIES AND SAY HEY, DON’T ASK US TO BUY THREE DIFFERENT ONES OF THE SAME
UNIT? HOW DO YOU TREAT WHAT COULD BE THREE VERY DIFFERENT THINGS?
MARK STIELOW:
“Right now, all the conversations I’ve been in and everything we’ve seen,
there is very little sharing between the sanctioning bodies. So yeah, in a
utopian world, it would be awesome if those guys all worked together, and we
could come up with a common solution. But for a lot of reasons, everybody
wants their own special mousetrap. So, what I’ve seen so far is everybody is
heading down a slightly different path. But that stuff seems to be changing
all the time. These meeting are constantly evolving.”
Q.) THERE HAS BEEN SOME TALK OR RUMORS ABOUT WHAT F-1 DOES. THEY CAPTURE
MGU-H TO TAKE THE HEAT OFF THE ENGINE AND CONVERTING THAT TO ENERGY IN THE
BATTERY. IS THAT ANY TALK OF DOING THAT FOR INDYCAR OR IS THAT STRICTLY A
KINETIC ENERGY SYSTEM?
ROB BUCKNER:
“Yeah, it’s been an interesting conversation with INDYCAR because we would
be the first series to run a Hybrid on an oval. So, a lot of this is very
conceptual. To your point, INDY qualifying engine duty cycle is ideally 100
percent if you never lift. So, how do you get any kinetic energy from that?
Other times during the race, the engine duty cycle is not 100 percent when
you’re in traffic. So that does open up the possibility of the car wasting
some energy there. In the end it’s an energy balance equation that INDYCAR
is going to need us or going to need to tell us how that want this. It also
adds a layer of complexity and cost that I’m not sure is the right fit for
INDYCARS. So, I think we’re leaning more toward it’s going to be a kinetic
recovery system primarily.”
Q.) THE PUSH TO PASS WE HAVE TODAY, IS THAT COMPLETELY GOING AWAY WITH THE
HYBRID? OR WILL THERE STILL BE A TURBO BOOST PUSH TO PASS IN COMBINATION
WITH THE HYBRID SYSTEM?
ROB BUCKNER:
“The nice thing is with our boosted engines is if any point during the
development and first test of the hybrid unit we need more or less power,
the engine programs function on electric wastegates. So, it’s relatively
easy to change the boost limitations if INDYCAR desires that. I think that.
If they need us to help push with a little bit more boost, I’m sure we would
easily be able to do that.”
Q.) YOU MENTIONED EARLIER THAT YOU’VE DEVOTED A LOT OF TIME LATELY TO IMSA
AND THE LMDH AND GTD-PRO. CAN YOU GIVE US AN IDEA ON WHEN GM MIGHT REACH A
DECISION OR MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT ON FUTURE PARTICIPATION THERE?
MARK STIELOW:
“I would say it would be in the next 45 days.”
Q.) CONCERNING THE NEW ENGINE WITH THE HYBRID 2.4 LITER, CAN YOU SAY
SOMETHING ABOUT THE MEASUREMENTS?
ROB BUCKNER:
“INDYCAR and us are working around the assumption that it will be around the
same size engine, physically. We’re going up in bore size but 2.4 is not a
huge architecture change. Our engine is going to be all-new. I don’t know of
any carryover components that we’re taking from the 2.2 liter. So, from that
perspective, it’s a clean sheet design; but fitting in the same envelope, if
you will.”
Q.) ON THE ISSUE OF COST, IF YOU HAD TO GUESS, WHAT INCREASE WOULD THERE BE
TO THE TEAMS WHEN THE HYBRID SYSTEM IS IMPLEMENTED, PER SEASON?
ROB BUCKNER:
“That’s pretty open-ended and not really defined at the moment as the early
hardware and INDYCAR is still working through what that system is going to
look like. It’s really not going to be a part of our relationship with the
teams, so I’m not really familiar. I know that Jay Frye and Darren Samsum
are leading that program for INDYCAR and they’re very cost-conscious; and
they’ve been involving the teams in these discussions. So, we think overall,
the paddock will be able to make that work. But I can’t say I know any exact
figures or details as of today.”
[ht: Inside Track Communications For Chevrolet]
TAGS:
Mark Stielow, Rob Buckner, General Motors, Chevrolet, Cadillac, NTT
INDYCAR SERIES, IMSA, NHRA, Hybrid 2.4 Liter. Turbo 2.2 Liter, The
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