Scott McLaughlin just missed out on taking his first pole of the 2023 IndyCar season on the new Detroit street course, and he credits the accuracy of his simulator for his pace.
Driving for Team Penske, McLaughlin has one of the highest priorities for simulator time. That gives him and his team an advantage on every track, but even more so on a brand new course.
Without historical data to pull from, car setups have to be created from the work done digitally before the teams arrive.
Even though the Detroit course is temporary, and nobody had driven it at all before this weekend, enough data was gathered to give McLaughlin a strong starting point coming into the event.
“We went back to our practice one setup [for qualifying],” said McLaughlin. “I was hoping it was going to work, and it did.
“[I was surprised by] how good the simulator actually is, yeah. What we learnt on the sim, we rolled here with that car. Like I said, we went back to our baseline car for the start of qualifying. I’m pleasantly surprised. Yeah, it was nice
“I feel like the first practice session, we did a lot of simulator stuff beforehand, so I already had the numbers and stuff down pat.
“I think now it’s knowing where the bumps are. There’s bumps on the track you haven’t felt before, you won’t feel till the race, they will feel different with old tires and fuel. Tomorrow is about attrition. It’s about making no mistakes, good pit stops and hopefully a fast car.”
The cars only average just over 95 MPH on the Detroit street course, meaning that mechanical grip is more important than anywhere else. The bumps and elevation changes only make that even more true.
It is obvious Team Penske’s damper package, the area teams are most freely able to innovate within the rules, is closely aligned with its simulator readings.
McLaughlin will attempt to stay out of trouble in Sunday’s race in order to earn his second win of the season.
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