SPEEDWAY, Ind. — A state-of-the art simulator inside Dallara IndyCar Factory in Speedway is about as close as you can get to racing without putting rubber to pavement.
“The movement of this machine is incredible," said IndyCar driver Callum Ilott. “I think when you see it moving, it's really eye opening."
Dallara IndyCar Factory has the only one of these models in North America. It was installed in 2014.
“Specifically, like this design, these models, there's only three (in the world)," said Stefano dePonti, the CEO & General Manager at Dallara USA. “We've got one at Dallara Italy and the same one in Maranello at the Ferrari factory.”
It isn’t exactly easy to take for a spin.
“This is a professional simulator, it’s not a video game," dePonti said.
Racing teams' engineers are just as involved as those behind the wheel.
“We can design cars, we can work with infrastructure companies, they design and build racetracks," dePonti said. "We can work with drivers training, we can work with teams for drivers and car setup. We can simulate the entire vehicle as well.”
In the simulator, drivers feel right at home.
“Inside we've got the actual IndyCar chassis," Ilott said. "That is exactly how it's meant to feel, how it's meant to be.”
They're giving drivers the next best thing in the safety of a simulator.
“You have to experience the real forces that are subjected while you're driving a car,' dePonti said. "Lateral forces, accelerations and braking. It's fully instrumented not only for collecting data, but also to have the vehicle make you feel these kinds of sensations.”