On Sunday’s IndyCar event from Barber Motorsports Park, pit strategy ended up being one of the most important decision of the afternoon.
The teams were split on whether a two stop strategy or a three stop strategy would be the best choice, and indeed the 27-car field was nearly split in half by the decision.
Those teams that opted to try to make a two stop strategy work had to tell their drivers to save fuel from the moment the green flag waved. This included the polesitter Romain Grosjean.
The Frenchman executed the strategy about as well as he could have, but still was unable to properly defend the top spot against a charging Scott McLaughlin as the laps wound down near the end of the race.
“It’s probably the most frustrating type of racing,” said Grosjean. “You know you can go faster, you want to keep the throttle pinned in, but you can’t.
“I think today probably didn’t play in our favor the wind direction. There are two big places where you are going to do lift and coast. It was [turn] 12 and [turn] 5.
“Both of them were the headwinds. I think it was slowing down the car more than it should have. That probably played a bit of a role in the lap time. Probably something to keep in mind for the future.
“Out of 90 laps, I think I did three laps where I was flat out, that’s it. The rest I had to lift and coast and save fuel. It’s a strategy we decided as a team before the race. We thought we could win with it, but obviously no.”
All throughout the race, drivers are given a fuel number that they need to meet, which corresponds to how much fuel usage they are averaging across the lap.
A live readout on the steering wheel helps keep track of usage in real time, and it’s the math equations being run on the pit wall that determine how hard a driver can push.
Multiple drivers met their target fuel number so closely that they ran completely out of fuel on the cool down lap after the checkered flag. Grosjean was one of those who needed assistance, and he saw a few others that were on the same strategy pulling to the side of the road as well.
“On the in lap, I think Josef Newgarden stopped [beside] me. And I think Colton [Herta] was without fuel on track because everyone pushed it hard. Yeah, I almost made it to the pit. Missed by 150 meters.”
Despite not being able to claim his first IndyCar victory, Grosjean was still quite satisfied with his second place result.
The 37-year-old seems to have found a sweet spot this year between aggression and preservation that works well for IndyCar’s style of racing, and has given him a pair of poles and a couple good chances at the win already this season.
