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Red Bull Advanced Technologies partners with IndyCar to develop Aeroscreen

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By: RACER Staff | 8 hours ago


IndyCar and Red Bull Advanced Technologies have formed a partnership to design an Aeroscreen for enhanced driver cockpit protection that will be implemented for the outset of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season.

The Aeroscreen is being developed by Red Bull Advanced Technologies to reduce the risk of driver injury from debris or other objects striking the cockpit area. The driver safety innovation that will encompass the cockpit consists of a ballistic Aeroscreen anchored by titanium framework.

“Since the first prototypes were developed and demonstrated in 2016, the potential of Aeroscreen to improve the safety for drivers in the event of frontal impacts in the cockpit area of cars has been clear,” said Christian Horner, Red Bull Advanced Technologies CEO and Red Bull Racing team principal.

“This new partnership with IndyCar gives us at Red Bull Advanced Technologies the go-ahead to fully explore that potential, and to deliver a protection system that will help prevent serious injuries and potentially save lives in the U.S.’ premier single-seater series. Over the coming months, we’ll be working closely with IndyCar and its drivers to refine and perfect Aeroscreen, and we’re looking forward to seeing the results race in 2020.”

“This collaborative effort on the Aeroscreen between Red Bull Advanced Technologies, Dallara and IndyCar truly exhibits an unrelenting commitment and passion for enhancing driver safety,” IndyCar President Jay Frye said. “We would like to thank everyone at Red Bull Advanced Technologies for creating a design that will be significant in the evolution of motorsports safety, not only for the NTT IndyCar Series but from a global perspective.”

The Red Bull Advanced Technologies design will consist of a polycarbonate laminated screen that includes an anti-reflective coating on the interior of the screen, an anti-fogging device through an integral heating element and possibly tear-offs, all of which will be produced by integrated third-party companies. Another feature for the drivers will be a cockpit cooling option that will be designed by IndyCar chassis builder Dallara, in conjunction with Red Bull Advanced Technologies.

The titanium framework will mount in three areas around the cockpit — the chassis centerline, two-rear side mounts and roll hoop integration — to provide enhanced load-bearing capabilities.

The load bearing is expected to be 150 kilonewtons (kN), which would equal the FIA load for the Halo design currently used in Formula 1. A kilonewton is equal to approximately 225 pounds, which is a force of gravity rating, not static weight or mass. Force is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration.

Upon completion of the Aeroscreen design by Red Bull Advanced Technologies, IndyCar is tentatively planning on-track testing by selected NTT IndyCar Series drivers this summer and the approved Aeroscreens delivered to all teams by the fall.

“IndyCar has always been on the forefront of driver safety,” five-time and defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing said. “They are constantly looking and evaluating what needs to be done. It’s something they have done throughout history if you look back through the different eras since auto racing started over 100 years ago. The Aeroscreen is just the latest effort in continuing IndyCar’s efforts to enhance driver safety.”

The Red Bull Advanced Technologies Aeroscreen is the second phase of IndyCar’s objective to further enhance driver safety in open-cockpit race cars. The series debuted the Advanced Frontal Protection (AFP) device, designed to help deflect debris away from the cockpit area and the driver, for the IndyCar Grand Prix at Indy earlier this month. The 3-inch-tall titanium component manufactured by Dallara is positioned in front of the cockpit along the chassis centerline, and will be utilized by all teams for the remainder of the season.

Previously, IndyCar had conducted extensive testing with a windscreen concept developed in conjunction with PPG Aerospace, including on-track sessions in 2018 at ISM Raceway in Phoenix and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The drivers who tested the windscreen did not report any issues, but additional comprehensive testing at PPG’s facility in Huntsville, Alabama, revealed additional work was needed. IndyCar was able to utilize the research and on-track testing from this project to provide additional data and information to Red Bull Advanced Technologies for the development of the current design.




Aeroscreen, Cockpit Protection, Red Bull, IndyCar

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PRUETT: Inside the development of IndyCar's Aeroscreen

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By: Marshall Pruett 8 hours ago


IndyCar president Jay Frye sought the input of Mario Andretti, Dario Franchitti, and Rick Mears to get their thoughts on the new Red Bull Advanced Technologies Aeroscreen unveiled today at the Speedway.

In individual meetings, the trio of legends — men who’ve won eight Indianapolis 500s and championships aplenty since the 1960s — gave their thoughts on its looks, its function, and most importantly, its ability to take driver safety to stratospheric heights.

Franchitti, whose body endured fractures and breaks over 20 years of racing, and whose brain reached its limit to recover from concussions, earned his opinions through pain. The Scot has also dealt with crushing emotional loss, earned as well, as IndyCar’s need for an Aeroscreen grew more certain with each goodbye.

A best friend. A little brother. A big brother.

“First of all, I think it’s a great addition to the safety of the current IndyCar,” he said. “I say that as someone who has strapped themselves in for a long time into an IndyCar and someone who lost three good friends to injuries that might have been prevented.

“Safety moves on. That’s the thing. I’ve certainly benefited from it a lot. Advances as well as the SAFER barrier, the HANS device, better helmet technology, accelerometers in the ears, there’s been this ongoing seat technology. There’s constant developments. I go back to Greg [Moore], I go back to Dan [Wheldon], go back to Justin [Wilson]. If we’d had the new Aeroscreen, if we’d have had that combined with everything they’ve done to integrate it into the top [roll hoop], those guys might still be here.”

Some will pan RBAT’s Aeroscreen for the change it brings to IndyCar.

“I don’t care what it looks like at that point,” Franchitti said. “I happen to think it looks good, but I don’t care what it looks like, if that was the trade-off that you need to have to still those friends around. And IndyCar is never going to be fully safe. And everybody accepts that. But if you have the opportunity to make it safer, you have to do it.”

The path to Aeroscreen 2.0 was a helpful one. Limitations in the original concept developed by RBAT, created as Formula 1 sought a new cockpit protection solution for 2018, led to IndyCar’s upcoming design.

Scott Dixon tests the original IndyCar windscreen at Phoenix. Image by Phillip Abbott/LAT)


Tested by Scott Dixon on the one-mile Phoenix oval and Josef Newgarden at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar’s prototype relied on the fortitude of the Aeroscreen material, a product named Opticor made by PPG, to withstand impacts on its own.

Borrowed from jet plane and jet fighter applications, the thick Opticor material was bolted to a custom bottom frame that mounted to IndyCar’s spec Dallara DW12 chassis. Unlike the airplane installations, which offered 360-degree window frame mounting for the Opticor, IndyCar’s prototype suffered in ballistic testing. Lacking a frame at the top of the material, heavy objects fired at the prototype caused the Opticor to bend, warp, and reach its elastic limits before ultimately experiencing catastrophic failure.

Befitting its name, the prototype, which gave IndyCar gigabytes of important information to process, was shelved as a comprehensive re-think was performed. In the interim, the series commissioned a stop-gap cockpit safety enhancement, the Advanced Frontal Protection device, which required retrofitting dozens of DW12s with new structural mounting points above the chassis bulkhead at the leading edge of the cockpit.

Where the Aeroscreen 2.0 makes use of the prototype’s shortcomings is with the addition of a new titanium superstructure that mounts where the current AFP is attached, and branches upward, in a nearly identical fashion to F1’s Halo device, and gives the Aeroscreen material the rigid upper frame it was lacking.

Although PPG was not named as the Aeroscreen’s material provider – nor were any other companies – the primary RBAT design was made to turn Aeroscreen 2.0 into a protective device that does not rely on the see-through material to carry the brunt of an impact in isolation.

The new titanium superstructure, which sits behind the screen at the front of the device, and wraps around the cockpit — above the driver’s helmet — on its way to being anchored at the primary roll hoop’s mounting points, is the heart of what makes Aeroscreen 2.0 a game-changer for IndyCar.

With a new capability of handling obscene forces fed into the three load-bearing chassis fixtures, RBAT and IndyCar have achieved something special by fashioning a halo device covered in an aeroscreen. Girded by the strength of titanium, the protective system wraps the superstructure with material that the AFP or Halo, due to the exposed nature of a driver’s helmet, would not be capable of stopping.