Dallara IR-27 IndyCar Series 2027 onwards all-new car discussion

[ispano6]

Dallara does also make the SF23 Super Formula chassis so it's likely that they will improve upon it for their next Indy car chassis with the hope that they will make the car lighter than then current chassis which is heavier than the SF23. It would be cool to see SF and Indy crossover races, even if for just exhibition.

[Hoffman900]

Dallara does also make the SF23 Super Formula chassis so it's likely that they will improve upon it for their next Indy car chassis with the hope that they will make the car lighter than then current chassis which is heavier than the SF23. It would be cool to see SF and Indy crossover races, even if for just exhibition.

Potentially.

The safety standards are a lot higher in Indy Car than any other open wheel series due mainly to running on ovals.

Much talk was made of Verstappen’s crash at Silverstone, but crashes of that magnitude (or geater) is somewhat a regular occurance in Indy Car (they’re pretty rare in F1). The safety record of the current car is pretty amazing considering how big of shunts there have been over its life span.

Indy also requires focus on blowover testing, ie: when the cars get sideways or backwards at 180-200mph plus, what does the car do? They want to keep them on the ground. Even F1 doesn’t require that.

[ispano6]

Dallara does also make the SF23 Super Formula chassis so it's likely that they will improve upon it for their next Indy car chassis with the hope that they will make the car lighter than then current chassis which is heavier than the SF23. It would be cool to see SF and Indy crossover races, even if for just exhibition.

Potentially.

The safety standards are a lot higher in Indy Car than any other open wheel series due mainly to running on ovals.

Much talk was made of Verstappen’s crash at Silverstone, but crashes of that magnitude (or geater) is somewhat a regular occurance in Indy Car (they’re pretty rare in F1). The safety record of the current car is pretty amazing considering how big of shunts there have been over its life span.

Indy also requires focus on blowover testing, ie: when the cars get sideways or backwards at 180-200mph plus, what does the car do? They want to keep them on the ground. Even F1 doesn’t require that.

True, and Indy I believe is sticking to the windscreen but if I remember correctly it is lighter than the F1 halo. The current Indy cars don't look bad, especially in oval form, so the high down force package weight and design is where we may see the most change. I for one love the Newey's X1 design but it technically wouldn't be open wheel in the pure sense, but has aero benefits. The current cars already have somewhat of a similar look too. Perhaps it will look like an in-between of F1 and LMN cars

[continuum16]

As someone who has watched Indycar all the way through the DW12/IR-18 era, it might sound strange but I really hope that they do not rush this. If a new car is coming by 2027 it has to be on the track in 12 months or less and that seems unrealistically soon. Change for the sake of change is never good and it seems like a lot of people (who ironically are NOT in the Indycar chassis supplier business) are getting more and more vocal about the need for a new car which might add undue pressure.

What Indycar cannot afford is a NASCAR "Next-Gen" problem whereby the new car is no safer, more expensive, more restrictive, and produces worse racing than the car it replaces. NASCAR is in year 4 of the new car and there are still many critical flaws, but enough time and money has allowed for safety and raceability improvements at least. Indycar cannot afford that both literally and metaphorically, as they have fewer teams, fewer OEMs, and smaller pockets.

The DW12/IR-18 has proven to be effective but at this point is a frankenstein car. It was not designed for hybridization. It was not designed for the aeroscreen. Even a ground-up design of similar outward appearance would probably be 10-20kg lighter just because it could be better optimized and things could be better integrated. I personally would welcome a mild evolution similar to the mid-cycle IR-18 refresh. The current cars are still very good looking imo and do not really need to be that much faster. Most tracks already have lap times under 70 seconds; any more will just create lapped traffic faster and probably worsen the dirty air.

Personally I expect the IR-27/IR-28 to be similar to the IR-18 but with power steering, slimmer sidepods, and a smoother integration of the aeroscreen. I would not be surprised if we see some uncommon elliptical aero surfaces for the wings similar to F2 or, to a lesser extent, SF.