LED displays on IndyCar single-seaters
LED panels on cars to display their positions... this is what IndyCar will experiment with starting May 9 at the Indianapolis GP. The technical solution was being validated at Barber.
Since 2012, IndyCar aims to be innovative in order to reclaim media market share from its rival NASCAR. The leaders of the North American championship decided to equip each car with an LED display showing the position of the car in near real-time. “This project started more than a year ago and this is really what would allow us to have more involved fans,” says Derrick Walker, the president of operations and competition at IndyCar. “If you’re not in front of a giant screen or the position display pylon, it’s hard to know what’s happening. It was natural to introduce a numbering system.”
The 3-millimeter-thick panel is slightly taller than half a sheet of paper (17.8 x 20.3 cm). It is positioned on the upper part of the airbox and just below the camera. The car’s position number is displayed in red and updated each time it passes in front of an intermediate timing cell. It turns green when the driver activates a “Push-to-Pass” to overtake an opponent.
The device is connected to the car’s ECU (the electronic control unit). The information will be transmitted in real-time during the races. We will be able to see how many positions each car has gained or lost, live on any lap completed, indicates Jon Koskey, the head of timing.
This system is expected to evolve to display other colors or other information.
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