IndyCar Introducing Universal Aero Kit In 2018 Season

IndyCar will move to a universal aero kit for all teams starting in the 2018 season and thus is keeping Chevy and Honda’s current kits frozen for next year.

IndyCar made official its dismissal of manufacturer aero kits on Wednesday, announcing via press release that it will use a universal aero kit across the league in 2018.

While that’s a year away, it will have an immediate effect: due to the upcoming change, neither Chevrolet nor Honda will be allowed to make changes to their manufacturer-specific aero kits for the 2017 season.

Here’s the official statement from league President of Competition and Operations Jay Frye on the change:

Today’s announcement follows an extended dialogue with Chevrolet, Honda, our teams and stakeholders. This decision focused on what is best for the future of the Verizon IndyCar Series. This is an integral component to IndyCar’s long-term plan to continue to produce the highest quality of on-track competition while also positioning ourselves to add additional engine manufacturers.

The 2018 car is a tremendous opportunity for IndyCar and the design collaboration is already underway. The goal of the universal car is to be great-looking, less aero dependent, have more potential for mechanical grip/downforce and to incorporate all the latest safety enhancements.

2018 was already positioned as a year of technical change for IndyCar, as Dallara is also introducing its new chassis to replace the DW-12 in that season. Between that and the universal aero kit, the 2018 IndyCar season should be fascinating to watch from a development standpoint.

But today is likely a good day for a number of fans. The manufacturer aero kits have been a talking point since they were introduced into competition back in 2015, and it’s never really been in a positive manner. In their debut at the 2015 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg it became a game to count the number of aero kit pieces that fell or were knocked off cars.

Then after Chevrolet soundly knocked Honda during the 2015 season, the latter made headlines as they campaigned IndyCar for permission to improve their aero kits. It didn’t really help – all but two races so far have been won by Chevrolet cars.

Moving on from the manufacturer aero kits was really the only option that IndyCar had going forward. The experiment was a bust all the way around; they broke, they didn’t create a better balance in competition, some fans thought they looked hideous and others were just tired of hearing about them.

Plus, as Frye notes, IndyCar would like to see some additional engine manufacturers come into the sport and this makes that easier.

But we’re not out of the woods yet. We don’t know anything for certain about the universal car; there’s no guarantee that will be an improvement. And with teams running the same aero kits and the same chassis, will there be such a thing as being too alike? One of the interesting things about the manufacturer kits, in principle, was that it allowed teams to customize cars. Now they’ll all be on roughly the same page.

We’ll find out in two seasons – for now, fans can expect 2017 to look exactly like 2016, at least in the aero kit department.