Why electric car racing is a pile of crap at the Indy 500 2025
And they can no longer lie to us like they did at Miami and Vegas to promote it.

https://racer.com/2025/05/12/indycar...923a-274228613
Paul Hurley/IMS What a race car used to look like

By Marshall Pruett - May 12, 2025, 2:40 PM EDT

IndyCar's enigma....or is it spelled enema?: Bend over and grab the wheel bearing grease.

Why battery car racing is a pile of crap at the Indy 500 2025
And they can no longer lie to us like they did at Miami and Vegas to promote more BS.

Why the best racing on the planet changed and we can't BS about it any more.

It took two IndyCar races and 146 combined laps for the FIRST wheel-to-wheel lead change to happen this season. Four races. A total of 335 laps of IndyCar competition. And a single pass at the front of the field. This hasn’t been the IndyCar we know.

Plenty of passing went on behind the leaders, but up front where most eyes and TV cameras are fixed, the 2025 season opened with an absence of compelling battles for victory, made worse by an absence of caution periods.

There were no on-track passes among leaders during the 90 laps race at St. Petersburg, and 56 additional laps were needed to put Alex Palou in a position to overtake Pato O’Ward for victory at The Thermal Club. In the 189 laps that followed, Palou went unchallenged over Thermal’s final nine laps before Long Beach polesitter Kyle Kirkwood won the 90-lapper without ceding the lead while on the circuit.

Palou reclaimed the baton at Barber Motorsports Park and wasn’t threatened at any point during his dominance of the 90-lap event.

Four races. A total of 335 laps of IndyCar competition. And a single pass at the front of the field. This hasn’t been the IndyCar we know.

Saturday’s Indianapolis Grand Prix offered a reprieve with some good action, and in a welcome twist, not one, but two on-track lead changes when Graham Rahal passed Palou at the start, and again when Palou took the lead back from Rahal on the way to his fourth win of the season.

Nonetheless, the adjusted tally sits at five races, 420 laps of action, and three passes for first place.

What happened to the series that was proudly -- and correctly -- known through 2024 for some of the best racing on the planet? The mistakes and misfortune that create cautions, restarts, and major passing opportunities have also gone missing. But why?

With plenty of questions hanging over the early road races and the strong possibility of the trends continuing after the Indy 500, RACER asked a range of experts to explain the unusual start to the season.

Background battery car racing is a pile of crap

IndyCar introduced its energy recovery systems (ERS) last July at Mid-Ohio and completed the second half of the season with the Dallara DW12 chassis in hybrid configuration. The ERS units, placed towards the back of the cars between the engines and transmissions, added 132 pounds. To offset the increase, some of the DW12’s drivetrain components were remade in lightweight magnesium, bringing the net gain down to approximately 100 pounds.

A total of two road courses, one street course, five short ovals, and an intermediate oval were run in 2024 with the hybrids. The roads and street races weren’t the most memorable, but the ovals – with the exception of Iowa – were among the best races of the year.......?

So what’s led to the downturn in lead changes and cautions?

Tires battery car racing is a pile of crap

Seeking to create more excitement on the roads and streets, Firestone was asked by IndyCar during the offseason to create a wider gap in grip and durability between its harder primary tires and its softer alternates. Firestone delivered on the request, especially with its street alternates, which have given short bursts of immense performance before extreme degradation begins and grip evaporates.

With the alternate tires surrendering long before the fuel tanks need replenishing, the intent was to create more excitement as some drivers scrambled to hold onto their cars while others thrived on the steadier primaries. But the opposite happened at St. Petersburg and Long Beach, where most front-running teams shed the alternates as quickly as possible and spent the rest of their races on primary tires.

“I don't think it's a coincidence that there’s been the change at IndyCar’s request to Firestone’s tires," says Chip Ganassi Racing's Mike Hull. “IndyCar asked Firestone to try to contribute positively to making the racing better by making the tire choice between the alternates and the primaries effective. In fact, I don't think that's happened.

“I don’t see anything else that’s changed, frankly. It has been a contributor to the issue, because we proved from Mid-Ohio onward (last year) that the racing was still pretty good.

“And then, if you combine that with the pendulum effect of the hybrid weight… that’s probably not as big of a contributing factor to tires themselves, but together, there’s been a change. I think the way to fix it is to go back to where they were before with the tires.”

The weight, aka, “The hybrid” battery car racing is a pile of crap

The 100 pounds and rearward location of IndyCar’s spec ERS units have fundamentally changed the handling of Dallara’s DW12 model.

Looking back to the 2013 regulations when the DW12 chassis specification was settled (the car underwent numerous updates when it was new in 2012), the DW12’s road/street course minimum weight (minus driver and fuel) was 1580 lbs. In 2025, with the ERS, the aeroscreen from 2020 and other safety updates applied since 2013, the road/street minimum has ballooned to 1785 lbs -- a 205-lb increase -- and taken the car to a physical state where it was never intended to function.

In human terms, it’s akin to strapping 22.5 lbs to the back of a 175-lb person and watching as they run slower, jump lower, struggle to deftly cut left and right, and take longer to stop from a full sprint. Prior to the hybrid weight, the DW12 lost some of its performance capabilities with the 50-ish pounds from the aeroscreen, but it wasn’t a night-and-day difference. In hybrid form, the DW12’s athleticism has been compromised.

With the 100 lbs of ERS heft, elite drivers and engineers have been forthright in saying the DW12 has reached its tipping point. At 1785 lbs dry -- and over 2000 lbs with drivers and full fuel to start the race -- the car’s current weight diminishes its ability to perform at the highest levels.

To keep the hybrid cars on the racing surface, pointed in the right direction, and the new tire compounds from boiling over, drivers have had to tame their inner animals -- some more than others -- to comply with the DW12’s lowered performance threshold.