'Using it is really critical': How IndyCar drivers say hybrid could effect 2025 Indy 500

Indianapolis Star

25-04-2025

IndyCar drivers say running in a pack third in line or farther back will be even more difficult with the added weight of the hybrid in this year's Indy 500.
That added weight, though, will create more opportunities for drivers to make mistakes, which when combined with 60 extra horsepower, could allow for passes that we haven't seen lately.
INDIANAPOLIS – As 33 drivers wrack their brains, pour over data and video, and figure out how to out-scheme Josef Newgarden 's last-lap mastery ahead of the 109 th Indianapolis 500, the art of passing – or better yet, not being passed – has morphed into an entirely new art form with IndyCar 's addition of hybrid technology 10 months ago.
And with two largely uninterrupted, sunny, balmy days of on-track action for this week's Indy 500 Open Test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, drivers say strategies are starting to come into focus. What hasn't changed is this: maneuvering a power-steering-less Indy car at speeds upwards of 230 mile per hour in race trim in the middle of a pack while on a knife's edge remains a Herculean feat requiring smarts, pinpoint precision and the ultimate combination of strength and endurance.
And with roughly 100 pounds more in the rear of the car – making it that much harder to turn and find a proper balance for – everything's been ratcheted up a notch.
The difficulty to pass for cars sitting third in line, or farther back has gotten even tougher, drivers have generally said. But the added difficulty in mastering steering in this era of an Indy car through 800 corners for next month's Indy 500 for the first time with the hybrid will inevitably create some new opportunities for mistakes.
And that means there may be more opportunities to pounce.
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'I would say the weight makes it tougher to drive, and so then I think it's not easier to pass with the weight we now have. But it's tougher to drive, so it's a lot easier to see people do mistakes,' two-time defending series champion and 2025 points leader Alex Palou said Thursday evening after pacing the final session of testing. 'I think the past two or three years, it was super easy where if you were comfortable with your car, you'd just stay there. Don't go 100%, and you wait for the car in front of you to do a mistake, and then you go (try and pass)."
'The car's going to be a lot less forgiving'
Pato O'Ward, who's twice finished runner-up in the 500 the last three years (2022 and 2024) while also crashing out battling for 2 nd -place in the closing laps (2023), was adamant that the helpless feeling of running third, fourth or fifth in a pack will, at times, feel even worse than in years past. But like Palou, he said after what he saw during testing this week, it's important to be on the lookout for mistakes ahead – ones that he would've rarely expected to see among front-runners in previous years.
Because the 60 extra horsepower they have at their disposal might now give drivers a better chance to pass in those situations.
'(With the additional weight), you get take-off understeer in order to follow (the car ahead), and it's heightened that much more. It's so much more aggressive and comes sooner, so there's some less sitting and waiting, whereas last year, you could kinda maintain, and if someone made a mistake, maybe you could get a run,' O'Ward told IndyStar Thursday. 'But with that said, having that extra power of the hybrid, you can get an opportunity.
'If the guy in front of you has a run (on the driver in front of him), then you'll never get a chance. But if he gets a little spooked, you can get a run and probably get by him. But the car's going to be a lot less forgiving.'
The art of waiting and staying patient – when and for how long – will remain important, Andretti Global driver Marcus Ericsson said, particularly in a pack scenario where you might be sitting third and watching the two cars battle for position and use up their hybrid system's charge. If the 3 rd -place driver can stay within reach and pounce once the others have completed their brief battle and are 'regen-ing,' that's another theoretical passing opportunity that hasn't existed previously.
Meyer Shank Racing's Felix Rosenqvist told IndyStar he was 'shocked' at the length of time it takes the car's hybrid system to fully recharge while having to manually work the system. Since the system's rollout midway through last year, teams and drivers seem to have almost exclusively set the hybrid system to run automatically on road and street courses since it recharges with braking.
Mastering the system on a superspeedway, where the brakes aren't ever touched beyond entering pitlane and under extreme duress, requires thinking 'a half-lap ahead,' Rosenqvist said, to scheme up a chance in the draft to lose a little speed without a penalty and then find a proper place to use it to one's advantage.
'If you're behind on it, it takes a long time to regen back up and have a go at someone,' Rosenqvist told IndyStar, noting that the added weight of the hybrid feels akin to having an additional full tank of fuel onboard.
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But barring sizable mistakes from the two drivers at the front in the closing lap or two, odds are drivers will still want to be in one of those spots. How to manage that and precisely what spot you want to be in and when is still a work in progress.
Juncos Hollinger Racing driver Conor Daly told IndyStar on Thursday that even with the additional weight in the car, one doesn't need to deploy their extra hybrid power in order to execute a pass on the 1 st -place car – unless, of course, the leader is using it to defend. But unlike push-to-pass, which a leader can use again and again, lap after lap down the stretch to try and hold onto a lead on a road or street course, once a leader depletes their extra boost over a couple seconds to try and maintain their lead, they become a sitting duck just like years' past – even more so if the car behind combines a solid tow with their hybrid power to slingshot around and take the lead.
'Running with your hybrid fully charged is obviously the most efficient thing to do, so if you do deploy it to get the lead, and then you have no energy, you then become vulnerable, so that's something really interesting,' Daly told IndyStar.
'(The hybrid boost) gives you enough that if you're in the lead, maybe you can keep the lead for one lap, but then you obviously need to recharge, and you're probably going to get passed,' Palou added.
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It stands to reason that there still remain arguments for wanting to both be running in front at the white flag, or laying back in 2 nd -place, waiting to pounce, even with the addition of the hybrid.
If you're out front with a fully-charged hybrid, could that be enough, while also trying to lose the trailing car in the draft, to successfully fend off a last-lap charge by using ones hybrid boost to force the 2 nd -place car to deplete their own, and then bet on your ability to win a drag race to the checkered flag already with a slight lead?
If you're leading with an empty hybrid tank, do you almost hand over the lead via a manual regen, only to use that built up burst to try to win a drag race to the line, knowing how Newgarden has twice proven a leading car faces tough odds to avoid a last-lap pass the previous two years?
Or do you want to be behind, willing to trust that the combination of a tow and 60 extra horsepower could be the best weapon anyone could ask for?
Those are the calculations teams will be intensely scheming over the next 30 days, all in hopes they get to test their theories in the closing laps come race day.
'I will just say this, I think hybrid utilization here (in the Indy 500) will be the most impactful of anywhere we've gone,' Newgarden said. 'It's gonna be critical to use the hybrid correctly in race-running, compared to any other race. Most other places we run, (using the hybrid) is a process thing, where you know where it's most efficient, and you're doing it every lap.
'Here, you can use the hybrid any way you want, and using it is really critical. And when you use it, it makes a big difference, so I think that will add a different complexion.'