the tires are kind of at their
temperature peak exiting turn one and
turn three so when you go into two and
four lists there's much less of a margin
for error
so guys I'm Alexander Rossi IndyCar
driver for Andretti Autosport I Drive
the number 27 Napa Automation Honda and
I won the 2016 Indy 500 where we're
gonna start this video is kind of coming
to the green flag so you roll off on the
beginning of what is for kind of pace
and parade lap so the first one kind of
do a salute to the fans so the first lap
is very slow and you're kind of just
waiting to the fans and then the second
and third lap you go single file and
that's when you get the engine
temperature the tire temperature the
brake temperature all to the levels that
you want and the team's kind of talking
these through that and then your final
lap you form back into the grid
formation 11 roses three you know what
you're trying to do is kind of just
maintain the speed off your car to your
inside because he's really the one
setting the pace and then from that
point you're just waiting until the row
in front of you accelerates and you try
and go with them you know you want to be
able to get a jump on the cars around
you but ultimately it's a 500-mile race
and there's so much that's gonna happen
throughout the next kind of three and a
half hours the last thing you want to do
is throw it all the way in the turn one
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as we're going into turn one this is the
first time they're actually seeing the
grand stands for and because of that it
looks a lot narrower than its looked for
all the previous two weeks we've been
practicing because the light's not
coming in there's different kind of
shadows and reflections and you see so
it's it's actually kind of intimidating
the first time you go through there cuz
you like all it's different obviously
it's not but it takes your mind kind of
three or four laps actually adjust to
the kind of the visual sensation so
going into turn one there's cars that
are taking a bigger risk than other cars
for sure going to why or three light
switch only one you can only do on
starts and restarts and the reason for
that is because you're accelerating from
such a slower speed out of turn four if
by the time you get to turn one you're
only doing 180 under 90 bucks now while
that's still fast it's a lot different
than approaching turn one and two
hundred forty miles so your your margin
for being able to explore different
lines really exists NATO starts and
restarts and then Mary can see it
followings more single-file and a Tracy
as much as geometrically turns one two
three and four are identical they're all
very different we're using the short
shoots to really change the balance
based on how it was to turn one MATLAB
the normal kind of balance is you have a
bit of understeer exit up one and
understeer into two
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between the short shoot of 1 & 2 you are
usually stiffening your rear bar your
rear anti-roll bar softening your front
anti-roll bar
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or or putting left-front weight so you
can change the cross way to the car so
you can actually move up 250 pounds from
the left front tires the right front
tire which changes the balance obviously
quite a bit so in terms of the easiest
places to crash I mean it's it's really
different for each driver it's usually
terms 2 or 4 while exiting turn to
Montoya's horizon chevrolet loses
control and slaps the outside wall
the tires are kind of at their
temperature peak exiting turn one and
turn three so when you go into two and
four loops there's much less of a margin
for error whereas when you're entering
one and three they have the entire
straightaway to cool down and kind of re
Center themselves whereas the short
shoots between 1 & 2 & 3 & 4
don't allow the tires really to cool
down enough so you have to be super
precise with what you do or the
penalties kind of just exponentially
bigger
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these cars are so aerodynamically
dependent and they're made to be run by
themselves so what that means is when
the wings and the floor of the car
developed they're made in this space
where the air that's coming at it is
clean meaning is unobstructed and the
cars going through it as if it was
brand-new virgin air well when you're
behind cars that are going through that
air they're actually dirtying up there
and it's coming out the car in a much
more disconnected fashion so it actually
reduces the performance your car where
this comes back to your advantage is in
the straights so because they're having
to basically punch a hole through clean
air that means that you don't have to do
that anymore so that's where the draft
when the slipstream comes into place so
the main goal of winning Indianapolis is
how do you find a car balance that you
can stay close enough behind the car in
front of you to not lose a draft but
then still fast enough in a straight
line to be able to pass because you can
obviously put downforce on raise the
rear wing angle and really glue your car
to the ground and be able to corner
really well and it's follow someone
super close but then when you're in
straight and you try and slip straight
past them you don't have enough
straight-line speed be able to do that
so it's all about finding that kind of
balance between this is the least amount
of grip I can get away with while still
being able to pass cars
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so going into turn three it seats parks
on the car in front one thing to keep in
mind in a race like this is because it's
so long you know the tire pressures are
pretty low at the start of the stint so
what you have is you have the car bottom
actually touches the ground we call it
that bottoming so when that happens
there's less of the tire on the ground
which is fine but you have to be
prepared for it because the car can
actually move a little bit and it's
hitting the deck so it's not as composed
would be
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and then going into turn four so as
you're completing the lap this is the
first time you're able to actually get a
balance check of what the car is doing
so that first lap to kind of really see
did I make the right call is everything
kind of you know as I expected it to be
and even if you know the first balance
check that you do isn't quite what you
were hoping for or expecting there's
enough it stops and enough time
throughout the race where you can tune
on the car and adjust tire pressures
doing ankles that theoretically you know
if you play your cards right by the end
of the race you can dial in the car to
be what you needed to be to win
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so as you start lap two you know it's at
this point where you kind of have an
idea of what the car is doing and you
start to analyze people's you know
strengths and weaknesses and start
trying to understand your areas of
attack as the day goes on and quite
honestly that changes you know every
five to ten laps as your fuel load
decreases their car balance changes and
the temperatures are always fluctuating
two to three degrees of track
temperature can make a big difference on
the balance of your car and it's the guy
that's able to stay on top of it the
most and make the best calls and
obviously have a good car underneath
them that's it's ultimately able to win
an Indianapolis 500 2016 85 under was my
my first 500 there's my second race ever
on an oval throughout the race and we
were having a lot of problems refueling
the car every time they came into the
pits I'd fall back I've lose positions
cuz we were we were taking along on foot
booked you in the car
my strategist and team owner Bryan Herta
you know came up with a strategy was
kind of like a high-risk just roll the
dice why not
we're gonna try and do one less pitstop
and everyone else and save fuel so we're
gonna try and just eliminate stopping
one flight on time and stretch our fuel
to make it to the end we always knew
that we were gonna run out of fuel on
the final lap it was just gonna be a
matter of when did we run out and we
have enough of a lead to be able to
basically coast across the finish line
so we have enough fuel to get us all the
way out of two through turn three and as
we were in the short shoot between three
and four we ran out of gas so just pull
the clutch in and just waiting it just
literally freewheel all the way from the
middle of turn four to the finish line
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we started in the lab with the 24-second
leave and one by 3.8 seconds certainly a
very strange way to win there
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[Applause]
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you