After introducing manufacturer-specific aerodynamic kits in 2015, IndyCar confirmed today that it plans to drop them in favor of a universal aero kit in 2018. The Chevy- and Honda-designed aero kits will continue in their current form on Indy's Dallara DW12 Chassis for 2017, but for the 2018 season, they will be abandoned.
Per a report RACER's Marshall Pruett, the Verizon IndyCar Series announced the move–which had been widely reported earlier this summer–on Wednesday. The current aero kits are almost universally loathed by IndyCar teams, so their abandonment has been met with overwhelmingly positive reception.
"There has been no pushback; actually there's been a lot of enthusiasm from all our partners, all our stakeholders," IndyCar CEO Jay Frye told RACER. "Just like on everything else we have done, we have talked to them for a long time now to come up with a solution with this idea going forward."
The decision to abandon aero kits was mainly made to entice a third engine builder to join Chevrolet and Honda in the series. For a prospective automaker, developing racing engine technology is a good way to promote their street cars, where aerodynamics are far more esoteric. This will also reduce the cost of entry for the series, since manufactures will only need to develop one major component.
Over the next year, IndyCar will determine its requirements for its universal aero kit, and find a constructor to build the kits for the series. Frye promised RACER that the 2018 cars will look better than the current cars as well.
"Will it look drastically different than the current car? Yes," said Frye. "Performance wise, we have goals we want to obtain, but can that be done while changing the look of the cars in this exercise? Yes."
IndyCar's made gains in popularity over the past few years, and these changes seem like it could help broaden its reach even further. We'll just have to wait until 2018 to find out.
A car enthusiast since childhood, Chris Perkins served as Road & Track's engineering nerd and Porsche apologist.
