IndyCar drivers will face a “unique” challenge when they race at the new home of the Detroit Grand Prix next week.
The race’s promoters have revealed images of the unorthodox double-sided pit lane where the 27-car field will refuel during the race.
The Detroit Grand Prix has been relocated from the Belle Isle circuit, which was its home since 1992, to a street course in the city. It includes some of the same roads used for Formula 1’s races in the circuit between 1982 and 1988 before the race was taken over by the CART IndyCar series.
The pits will be built in a car park for the nearby Renaissance Center. However the organisers found space was too limited to construct a conventional, single-sided pit lane. That led to the decision to allow drivers to refuel on both sides.
“The problem was there wasn’t 1,000 feet of pit lane,” Detroit Grand Prix chairman Bud Decker explained in a video produced by the event promoters. “We have 500 feet.
“So what do we do? For the first time ever, the fans are going to see a dual pit lane where cars will come in and some will pit to the right and some will pit to the left.
“At the end of pit lane they’ll all come together in a single file and find their way back to the race track. How? I’m sure they’ll figure that out.”
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The arrangement isn’t entirely unprecedented. Formula E used a similar twin-sided pit lane configuration in Hong Kong when it raced there between 2016 and 2019 (below). Although refuelling is not needed in the all-electric series, drivers did pit to swap cars during the first race in Hong Kong.
IndyCar has already had one controversial episode in a conventional pit lane this year, when Alexander Rossi was penalised in the Texas round for colliding with Kyle Kirkwood when they came in for stops. Rossi maintained the collision was Kirkwood’s fault.
Decker predicted Detroit’s pit lane will be a scene of drama when IndyCar uses it for the first time following next week’s race.
“That is going to be where the action is going to occur because you win and you can lose on pit lane,” he said. “Our will be the most unique anywhere in the world because – guess what? – this has never been done before.”
Formula E’s twin pit lane
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