Ganassi’s Palou, Dixon frustrated by only one day of testing

Like most series veterans, the pair spent just a single day of testing at Sebring Raceway last week, before heading to St. Petersburg for this weekend’s opening round of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series.

Asked about his offseason, Palou quipped: “We were so busy, it was so tiring.

“It feels weird that we only got one day of testing. I don’t think it’s the right choice, I understand we’re getting a new car next year but we’re making the championship smaller for ourselves, which doesn’t help. 

“Still, we’re doing great things on the race events side, so if we lose a bit of testing, it’s alright.”

Asked how much he and the team had learned from their tests, Palou responded, “Nothing. Coming to a road course with a street setup on the first day of your season – OK, it’s good for you to wake up yourself, you start to understand the car, and then the day is over.

“We still got some stuff that we thought was good at Sebring, so we need to see that at St Pete.”

Dixon was similarly disappointed by the dearth of track time for IndyCar drivers over the past five months.

“It’s somewhat frustrating with the lack of testing that we have for such a high level of racing,” said the 41-year-old. “The money still gets spent.

“I imagine with the hybrid side of things [2.4-liter hybrid engines coming for 2023] we’ll get back to the track a little bit more and I think we all understood how the schedule was reduced with COVID, but it’s time to get back to reality and crack on with having IndyCars on track. 

 “The one day that we did, I think we almost accomplished what we needed to do. It’s a road course and it’s the only place we get to test the street course tire. It has different elements to it, so it’s always a big unknown, but if you go too fast you risk veering off into a Sebring-esque setup that compliments the lap times.”

Palou said he was happy to start the season at St. Petersburg which he pointed out was “not a good race for us last year.”

He explained: “I think it’s good to start with hard ones, so I can get them out of the way, but at the same time I want to improve on what we did last year.

“We improved our street course setup and my performance through the season. So I’m looking forward to starting at the track where we lacked the most last year. We can improve quite a lot here. As a team we didn’t have any particular car that was good, and myself, I was not at the performance of the car I’d say.

“It was my fifth or sixth street course race, so it takes time to get used to the car and tracks. But after two races at Detroit, one at Long Beach, I just feel a little bit better.” 

Regarding his main challengers as he attempts to defend his crown, Palou said they were “everywhere!”

He went on: “It’s IndyCar, look at the entry list – so many guys can fight for the championship. There’s 12 drivers, for sure, I know that can fight for this championship. Then there’s two or three more that suddenly can appear – like we did last year! It’s so important to be consistent.” 

“You always need to go for the wins and the best you can. I think we did a good job of scoring a second place last year when we could only do a second. You always wanna get the guy in front and divebomb him, but it’s not always possible!” 

Asked what it felt like arriving in St. Petersburg as defending series champion, he smiled: “It didn’t change anything, I was walking the same way.

“It feels good, it’s awesome, it gives you confidence, it’s big. But I’m lucky. I have a six-time champion on my team and a seven-time NASCAR champion [Jimmie Johnson] also, so that makes me feel really, really small!” 

Dixon concurred that the competition is “stacked” and that consistency would be key to a title assault.

“You definitely wanna win races, and consistency is probably going to be key,” he said, “but it’s also going to be a case of managing weekends well. Making sure you get space on track in qualifying, all those little things. Putting emphasis on getting that right will make your weekend flow easier.  

“More cars will lead to more red flags, not much track time. I think last year we spent less than 10 minutes on track here in the first session, so it’s going to be management.”