Breaking news

IndyCar Phoenix February testing

Rahal impressed with RLLR’s revised engineering lineup

Graham Rahal, who suffered a spin and scrape along the wall in the final session of the Phoenix test, says he’s already noticing the technical progress made at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda over the winter.

David Malsher-Lopez

Edited: Feb 12, 2017, 1:19 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Tom German

Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Race winner Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Rahal spun through 180 degrees in PIR’s Turn 1, grinding along the SAFER barrier and bending the left rear corner of the car. But earlier today, he sang the praises of the engineering team at RLLR, in particular Tom German.

Last December, German joined RLLR as engineering consultant and to race engineer the second car whenever the team had sponsorship to run a Oriol Servia, who has so far got the Indy 500 and the Detroit double-header locked in.

Said Rahal: “Tom is a guy who was at Penske for 10 plus years and obviously was with [Alexander] Rossi last year. The biggest thing with Tom is to come in and implement some of the processes that a Penske does in areas that we aren't that strong.

“For instance, we've struggled with our car with massive tire vibrations the last couple of years. It killed me at Iowa last year – I had no hope. And already he's cured that in this test, with ideas and knowledge that he brought from Penske over the years. Stuff like that we were just struggling hard with, and Tom has brought a wealth of knowledge. 

“It’s just another addition to our great core of engineering and people and mechanics and everybody. I think Eddie [Jones], Martin [Pare] and Mike [Talbott] and the whole core group of guys has done an excellent job. Everybody is working hard, and trust me, they want to be top Honda team once again, and we want to go fight for a championship like we have the last couple seasons. There's a lot of fire in their stomachs and they’re ready to go.”

After paying tribute to Sebastien Bourdais and predicting wins for Dale Coyne Racing, Rahal commented: “Obviously those other guys who’ve joined Honda [Chip Ganassi Racing], they're going to be damned good. We've already seen things today from an aerodynamic standpoint.

“They're parked right next to us. We're seeing aero configurations on their car that we've never seen on a Honda before. With the tunnel and stuff that they have, they have access to learn that info, and we're sitting there looking at it going, ‘Jeez, what have they figured out that we haven't over the last couple years?’ 

“So they're going to elevate the game, too. We're all going to have to push very hard. I think here we're going to be lacking a bit of pace, particularly in qualifying, because my lap [this morning, a 189mph effort] was half decent; then I tried to trim more than that and about ended up in the fence, so I'm not sure how much more there is.

“We don't want to be just top Honda. Obviously we're all here to win a championship, right? That's what we're trying to do.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Firestone get positive feedback on new Phoenix tire

Next article Hunter-Reay tops IndyCar’s crash-filled test session

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

4 h

Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links

Did Haas make the correct decision in signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027?

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

6 h

Did Haas make the correct decision in signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027?

Frederik Vesti steps up to full-time role as Cadillac Racing details 2027 IMSA lineup

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 6 h

Frederik Vesti steps up to full-time role as Cadillac Racing details 2027 IMSA lineup

Rafael Camara to replace Esteban Ocon at Haas for F1 2027

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

7 h

Rafael Camara to replace Esteban Ocon at Haas for F1 2027

Feature

Discover prime content

Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game

Feature

IndyCar

Feature

IndyCar

By Joey Barnes

Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game

You Ask The Questions: David Malukas

IndyCar

By Joey Barnes

You Ask The Questions: David Malukas

Top 10 Ganassi IndyCar drivers of all time

IndyCar

By John Oreovicz

Top 10 Ganassi IndyCar drivers of all time

Alex Palou still unstoppable as Nashville win edges him closer to fifth IndyCar title

IndyCar

Nashville

By John Oreovicz

Alex Palou still unstoppable as Nashville win edges him closer to fifth IndyCar title

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts