Written by Archie O’Reilly, Edited by Morgan Holiday
Three weeks on from the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, the IndyCar circus has travelled to the opposite side of the United States for the second round of the season in The Thermal Club.
Nestled in California’s Coachella Valley, the members’ club is hosting its first-ever championship race after holding IndyCar’s $1 Million Challenge exhibition in 2024. And based on last year’s performance, there were no surprises with the practice pace-setter.
Palou and Andretti start off strong
Álex Palou, winner of last year’s Thermal non-championship race, led the way in opening practice, continuing his wave of momentum after winning in St. Pete.
The three-time champion was just shy of one-tenth of a second ahead of Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood at the top of the time sheets. Kirkwood’s teammates Marcus Ericsson and Colton Herta rounded out the top four for the Andretti team which tested at Thermal during the off-season.
“If we’re not quick right away after you’ve tested, it’s a little disappointing,” said Herta, who topped the first of the two session-ending group sessions. “So to start off that way is a little bit expected because we tested here. But it feels good.”
That said, the test was done with a different tyre and in much cooler temperatures. Pato O’Ward, whose Arrow McLaren team used a rookie test day at the track with Enzo Fittipaldi, affirmed that the Thermal track is very sensitive to these differences.
“It’s pretty different,” Herta added. “It would be nice if it was a little closer to what we have this weekend but there’s still general things. In the general balance, it’s somewhat similar.”
The same four drivers populated the leading quartet in the 45-minute all-car session - shortened by a red flag - as Kirkwood led Ericsson, Palou and Herta.
Christian Rasmussen was fifth on the final practice time sheets, with his Ed Carpenter Racing team also testing at Thermal in the off-season with Hunter McElrea. O’Ward was sixth and Scott McLaughlin, whose Team Penske team used IMSA champion Felipe Nasr for the off-season test, followed him in seventh.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL)’s Louis Foster was the best-placed rookie in eighth. Felix Rosenqvist, who suffered two incidents in a test at Barber Motorsports Park after St. Pete, was ninth overall after finishing second in the first split group for Meyer Shank Racing.
Will Power, Santino Ferrucci and Scott Dixon rounded out the top five in the first of the two group sessions but populated positions 10th through to 12th on the combined time charts after their session was punctuated by a late red flag.
St. Pete third-place finisher Josef Newgarden was eighth in the first group session and ended up 18th overall.
A major setback for Shwartzman
There were two red flags in Friday practice, the first of which was caused by a significant mechanical issue for rookie Robert Shwartzman for newly-joined team PREMA Racing.
The No.83 Chevy came to a halt midway through the all-skate session with what was confirmed as a fuel cell issue, which caused a fire that proved difficult to extinguish. A singed engine cover was initially removed before the AMR Safety Team had to remove large amounts of the cockpit’s contents to contain the flames.
The blaze has necessitated a chassis change, which marks a disastrous start to the team-and-driver combination’s second weekend in IndyCar. PREMA can at least take some encouragement from Callum Ilott finishing ninth in the all-car session and 13th overall.
The lengthy delay as Shwartzman’s car was recovered led to a heavily-punctuated first 45 minutes of practice. A second red flag was later brandished with seconds remaining in the first group session as Devlin DeFrancesco’s RLL machine came to a halt.
Tyre degradation top of mind
While the teams’ learning was limited by the red flags, a common consensus was reached: tyre degradation will be a big factor this weekend.
“It’s still a cheese grater,” O’Ward said. “I think it was a bit different for each of our cars. But the common denominator is that the deg is going to be big. I would see it like an old Iowa kind of thing but a road course.”
Herta spoke of the general challenge of the 3.067-mile road course which saw Palou record Friday’s quickest lap time, a 1:40.5486.
“This track makes anything hard to drive with the lack of overall grip,” he said. “It ruins tyre pretty quickly so there’s a lot of deg. So that makes it difficult to get a lap together. The overall performance of the tyres are a little bit better than what we saw in St. Pete.
“But it’s still going to be interesting. On the [softer] reds, you’re looking at one, maybe two laps in qualifying. It puts a lot of pressure on us to get it done on that one or two-lap tyre.”
Thermal’s first points-paying race
The view from the majority of drivers last year was that, if IndyCar was to return to Thermal in 2025, it could not be repeated as a non-points race. Many are willing to give the track a chance as a championship event.
“There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be,” said Alexander Rossi midweek. “I was one of the proponents last year to make it a championship race. I would say it makes way more sense for it to be a real race versus what we did last year.
“It’s more open to the fans this year as well - that was one of the big hurdles to overcome; you obviously don’t have an IndyCar event behind closed doors - 2020 is far behind us. I think it has every aspect that a track would need to have to be a proper event on the calendar.”
Compared to the heat races and 20-lap finale last year, where no more than 14 cars were on track at once and there were no pit stops, there will be 27 cars racing at once for the first time at Thermal. So how will the racing product actually be?
“I actually think it’s going to race a lot like the old Laguna Seca in some ways - quite a high deg track,” McLaughlin said. “We’ll probably play that patience game a little bit. Last year was hard because we ran the same set of tyres over two races almost.
“But this year, with pit stops and stuff… it’s not as many [passing opportunities] as you probably thought there would be on a big, big track, but I think with the tyre degradation it’ll create opportunities.”
The pit lane has been modified since IndyCar’s visit last year in order to fit all 27 cars, while there have also been attempts to smooth down some bumps, which McLaughlin says has made it “more raceable” despite some remaining roughness.
“I think I’m still airborne,” the Penske driver said, to which O’Ward replied: “I thought it felt a little bit better. We’re still catching some air.”
A first hybrid visit to Thermal
As with the entirety of the early part of the season before Mid-Ohio in July, IndyCar has not raced at Thermal with the hybrid system. Many have not driven the track at all with the hybrid.
“I’d say compared to the other tracks that we’ve run the hybrid on, you get a lot more usage out of it here,” Herta said. “So it’s a lot bigger time gap if you don’t use it. It makes it a little bit more important than other tracks.”
McLaughlin agrees that the hybrid could be impactful on the longer-than-most Thermal track.
“They’ve added the energy limit so this weekend we can use more than we actually have in previous races,” he said. “We’re making improvements and getting more comfortable with this hybrid system but there’s still kinks and whatnot and we're trying to iron that out. But I really do enjoy the complexity.”
O’Ward embracing Kanaan as TP
An off-season reshuffle at Arrow McLaren saw IndyCar icon Tony Kanaan named team principal. So how is O’Ward finding his new boss?
“Race car driver mentality,” O’Ward said. “He still thinks he’s a racing driver. It’s good. It drives everybody forward. Always has a good spirit, lots of energy. There’s also additions to leadership so it’s taken some time to all mould together. But we’re headed in the right direction.”
O’Ward does not mind some of the more critical feedback that may come from Kanaan.
“I always like to hear the negative feedback more than the positive,” he said. “Behind the results, there’s a lot of things that happen and you always learn more from the things that you’re doing maybe not optimal. I always welcome it.
“Sometimes it’s not what you want to hear but it’s the right approach to have an open mind.”
McLaughlin’s ridiculed FOX cartoon
Friday also brought discussion about FOX’s St. Pete graphics package, which prompted Herta to post an amusing tweet about McLaughlin’s cartoon face.
“They did you so dirty, man,” O’Ward chimed in.
FOX has since changed the driver pictures to non-cartoon versions, for which O’Ward blamed Herta.
“I think it’s because of you,” the Mexican driver pointedly said, with Herta joking: “I thought the head looked a little too small.”
Jokes also ensued about McLaughlin’s forehead.
“They’re going to land a helicopter on it,” O’Ward quipped, with McLaughlin responding: “I do have a big forehead. That’s why I wear a hat.”
“But not that big,” O’Ward finished. “Don’t do yourself so dirty.”
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