IndyCar Series is considering staging the rollout of its next generation of chassis, which would allow teams to avoid buying entirely new cars.
The idea was floated by IndyCar president Jay Frye who is looking at ways to limit spending among teams, who will have been hit by the suspension of racing and coronavirus pandemic.
From 2022 IndyCar is introducing a 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 hybrid electric powertrain, which is currently set to be followed a year later by further chassis changes.
“Looking at the original timeline, the new engine was going to come in 2021 and the chassis was going to come in 2022,” Frye told RACER.
“Then we changed the timeline for the engine, moved it back a year and added the hybrid component, and that left a decision on the chassis, and when would be the right time to put that in motion. So we met with team owners at COTA and told them we were looking at reverse-engineering the car going backward from 2027, break it up into pieces where there are smaller pieces every year.”
The current plans are for the current DW12 Dallara chassis to be retained until 2023 and to be used alongside the new powertrain, which offers IndyCar the option to delay further changes.
IndyCar gets back underway this weekend at the Texas Motor Speedway with a behind closed doors event, the first race of the 2020 season.