Coming as a back-to-back race from Canada, Indianapolis presents a very similar set of demands for the engineers as Montreal. Thus, the lack of testing time and comparable set-up demands meant that few developments were on the cars for this race.
In addition to the Canadian rear wing and mounts, McLaren dropped the usual wing over the rear light © XPB/LAT |
Indianapolis's layout is split between the slow infield section from turn one to turn 11. From there, the race track passes out onto the oval and its main straight for a 28s flat-out blast.
While the infield section demands downforce and mechanical grip, the lap time is dominated by the long run around the oval. This means that the car's set-up is favoured towards lower drag for speed along the straight. This compromise in the set-up makes the cars tricky to manage around the slower corners.