Number 265: The Technology Issue
It's a strange paradox that while no sport embraces technology quite like racing, it's treated as a dirty word by some motorsport fans who associate it with spoiling the action, making life too easy for the drivers, or making it too complicated to comprehend. Well, let's first of all point out that Miller Indy cars, Lotus F1 cars and Chaparral Can-Am cars incorporated cutting-edge technology, and yet we cherish rather than despise them for that. Secondly, you don't have to be a professor of physics to appreciate technology's constant and profound effect on racing. And that's what much of this Technology Issue is about.
The 2015 IndyCar aero kits will be far more radical and distinctive than many expected, and ferociously efficient, too. However, they're no match for the amazing Dunlop Future Racecar which former Brabham and Benetton designer Sergio Rinland has penned for us in this issue. It uses tech that he insists will be mature enough to render aspects of his concept viable in as little as five years. There's some stunning blue-sky thinking in that story alone...
But if you're still trying to grasp the present, namely those new-for-2014 F1 power units, and how Ferrari and Renault (and Honda) can ever catch up with Mercedes, it's all explained in the Technology Issue of RACER, on sale now.
We're not slaves to technology, however; we appreciate the humans in the cockpits, too, which is why this issue contains an interview with Verizon IndyCar Series champ Will Power, a tribute to former Indy car ace Paul Tracy, and an analysis as to why Red Bull feels Max Verstappen is ready to race in F1 next year at the age of 17.