Although he raced at Gateway’s oval course last August, ex-Formula 1 driver Grosjean is only committing to the full IndyCar calendar in 2022, his second year in US open-wheel racing, and his first with Andretti Autosport.
In yesterday’s six-car test for oval rookies, Grosjean topped the speed chart for laps run without the aid of a tow, during the course of a 152 laps of the 1.5-mile Texas oval.
He told Autosport: “It was a busy test program but we managed to get through everything. The temperature was pretty decent [26 degrees C], we did some group running, it was a good day.
“At the start of the day, we had the car on the nose, a bit too much CoP [center of pressure], but it was interesting actually, to remove the front flap and see what it does to the handling of the car. We tried various things and we now know the direction we don’t want to go!
“I guess that’s a positive and now we’re just going to fine tune the setup options that we preferred. We did three attempts at quali sims which were decent, and our lap times were very consistent over the two laps.
“I feel like there is more we can extract though, because we are still a little bit conservative setup-wise… but that’s better than the other way.”
Romain Grosjean, Andretti Autosport Honda
Photo by: IndyCar Series
Grosjean said that he felt he’d fine-tuned his sensitivity so he could feel the fractional slipping of the outside tires on light downforce.
“It’s quite interesting because on new tyres for a two-lap qualifying simulation, you can be flat both laps and one lap is going to be slower than the other one and you have to understand why. It’s a bit of sliding, a bit of this, a bit of that; there is a lot of finesse required and that’s very interesting.”
Unlike some oval rookies, especially those with road course backgrounds, Grosjean grew to prefer driving with some right-hand steering lock for the straights, so that the driver straightens the steering for the banked turns.
“We made that change during the day – to fight it, feel like you’re turning right when you’re in a straight line, and then centre the wheel for the turns.”
However, he admitted the slowed-down steering rack for ovals meant entering the pitbox was difficult compared with road and street courses, and there are plenty of things to remember on the pitlane.
“It is quite something to get into the pitbox, with the left-front wheel locking very easily, and the slow steering as you said,” he remarked.
“It’s about getting used to the ‘toys’ in the cockpit – putting the front bar soft, the rear bar stiff and adjusting the weight jacker. And then making sure you remember to reverse all that after you leave the box! It is very busy.”