IndyCar is making an adjustment to its push-to-pass system for the third time in as many races, for the fifth race of use since its reintroduction at Toronto in July. After experimenting with 5- and 3.5-second delays at Mid-Ohio and Sonoma, the activation delay has been dropped entirely for this weekend's race at Baltimore.
“We've had two races without the activation delay and two races with it,” said IndyCar Director of Engine Development Trevor Knowles. “Based on driver feedback, we're adjusting the parameters of push to pass to fit this particular circuit.”
A total of 90 seconds will be afforded drivers, with a maximum of 20 seconds per activation on the 2-mile temporary street circuit. There's no recharge time between activations.
Will Power opined on the delay at last weekend's post-race press conference in Sonoma, reckoning he would have had a better shot at passing teammate Ryan Briscoe on the late race restarts if his push-to-pass system had worked properly.
“Yeah, (the restarts) were fine, good, clean. ‘Push-to-pass' as usual doesn't work,” he said. “The speed limiter would engage. If you saw a couple times, Ryan would suddenly pull a big gap, I'd hit the pit speed limiter and it would just die. Dario [Franchitti] would almost get me. I don't know what he's thinking. He must have been thinking, ‘What is this guy doing?'”
The overtake assist feature, first introduced to the series in 2009, allows a driver to add turbocharger boost and additional RPMs with the press of a button on the steering wheel. When the system is engaged, the turbocharger boost increases to 160 kPa with an additional 200 RPMs on the 2.2-liter V6 engines supplied by Chevrolet, Honda and Lotus.