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INDYCAR MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 30, 2014Ryan BriscoeScott DixonSimon PagenaudTHE MODERATOR: We'll get started with our Verizon IndyCar Series post test press conference. We are pleased to be joined by three of our drivers, Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud.  Simon, you've been around the track in a road car here doing a few pace car rides. Now that you've been in your IndyCar, what are your impressions? SIMON PAGENAUD: It's a beautiful layout. They've done a really, really good job here. It suits the IndyCar really well, I think. It's very smooth. It's the smoothest track we go to. It's enjoyable. Quite a bit of high-speed corners, medium-speed corners, a lot of braking, which is going to be good for racing. I enjoyed it. I think the rhythm of the track is enjoyable as a driver. Chicane, seven, eight, nine section, is quite enjoyable as well. You get pretty busy in the car during the day. That was a lot of fun today. THE MODERATOR: Scott, you were talking in Barber about being interested to see what the track was going to be like having been on it before. Now that you've been out there, are you impressed or skeptical? SCOTT DIXON: No, impressed, as Simon touched on. I've obviously got a big smile on my face. The track was so much fun today. The thing they captured, it's a demanding circuit. The cars all seem very close which is going to create some fantastic racing. These big straights, I think Brazil is probably the only other time we've had a straight similar length like this. You're actually a lot lower here. The sections, especially seven, eight, nine, ten, keeps you on your toes. Yeah, no, really impressed with how everything's gone. Even the curbing, they've done a fantastic job. THE MODERATOR: Ryan, Scott mentioned seven, eight, nine and ten. If you had to note a few points on the track, where would you point out? RYAN BRISCOE: One and seven are the big pass zones. I think just huge improvements over what was the F1 track with extending the straight down the middle, slowing down turn seven, then opening up the next set of S's in eight, nine and ten where it used to be very slow and now it's really fast and challenging. Great track. Great job by everyone here that was a part of making it happen. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. Since this has been a love fest all day, can we have one thing you would like to see different about it? Anything you could think of? SCOTT DIXON: Sun could have stayed out a little longer. SIMON PAGENAUD: Sunshine, yeah. Q. Nothing? SCOTT DIXON: No, I think they've done a great job. Q. That is unprecedented for drivers. SCOTT DIXON: Things to moan about the car, but the track... Q. On pit exit right now, I was watching all you guys come down. In the morning you were going on the track around the curbing, in the afternoon on the inside. Do you think for the race they should put a lane on the inside of turn one, allow you guys into merge into traffic on the backside of one? RYAN BRISCOE: Actually this afternoon that's what we were doing. Q. Is that going to be the rule? SIMON PAGENAUD: We've been talking about it over lunch with the drivers, Brian Barnhart. There were a few instances in the morning where with the mirrors you can't really see when you come out of the pit exit. We looked at how we could make it different for the driver to exit and not obstruct the road for the fast drivers. It looks like we may do the inside of the curb for the people coming out of the pit box, so therefore it would be a lot easier to merge on the racetrack. That's just an adjustment. Doesn't take much to make it happen. Q. The sight adjustments, is it weird to see the pagoda on the right when you come through down the main straight instead of on the left? SCOTT DIXON: I've been here in the GRAND-AM car before. It's familiar. Feels weird driving down pit road the wrong way, seeing cars go the wrong way. SIMON PAGENAUD: Going down pit lane is weird. What's going on here (laughter)? I haven't been here as long as Scott, so I don't know. RYAN BRISCOE: I think still it looks the strangest from outside the car. When we're out there driving, it's just another racetrack really. But you stop and you have a look and you see the cars coming up the straight the wrong way, it takes some getting used to, for sure. Q. Your sight lines, braking here, going here or there, I know you're professionals, but it's an adjustment from going the other way. RYAN BRISCOE: Yeah, it's all different. We're not using the actual oval corners either. When I was here back in October and did some laps in the IndyCar, we were trying the configurations. We actually ran turn one going backwards. That was weird. And the banking felt huge. When we go this way for the 500, you don't even notice the banking. It doesn't feel like there's any banking at all. You go backwards through it, it's like you lean over, the steering gets heavy. It really stood out. Q. If you're Juan Pablo, you believe you can pass anywhere on this track. But other than him, what are the best places to pass? SIMON PAGENAUD: I think it's actually going to be really, really good on restarts because we can pretty much do one, two, three, four side-by-side. It's going to be a pretty good show. It will settle down at some points. If there's tire wear, it will make it exciting again. I think one, seven and maybe twelve are good areas for passing. Q. Does it matter to you guys that there's 20 some odd cars? We're used to 33 for the 500. Does it matter? SCOTT DIXON: 33 a couple weeks later, right? RYAN BRISCOE: It's not the 500. This is a really strong field. You're going to see 23 cars pretty close to within a second of each other in qualifying. It's going to be impressive, for sure. Q. Scott, can you talk about experience and personality-wise what Tony has brought to your team. SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, as I was talking to somebody today, we've actually been as a team I think lacking in speed. So most of us have been heads down trying to focus on getting each car as good as possible. There's definitely some new teams there with Briscoe at work with Eric before, and T.K. is new to Simmons. Charlie and Brad have been together. There's some different areas and some different dynamics. T.K. has been a pleasure to work with so far. I think right now a lot of us are trying to find our way, and he's trying to find his way a little bit more with so much new stuff. So far so good. I think once the month of May kicks in, a lot of us will be able to spend a lot more time together to try to get benefits out of our own cars and things like that. It's just been a bit hectic so far. Q. Watching in pit lane, you come in, mechanics put something on the brakes to cool them. Do you think a warm day, taking care of your brakes will be a big part of being successful? SCOTT DIXON: One of them caught on fire. Don't know what happened. No, I think you have long enough straights, then sort of the eight, nine, ten section, you're not really touching them. You get heavy braking into one, seven and twelve. But you got a lot of space to cool down. It's not like a street course where you're constantly on them or there's not much flow of wind. Q. Turn one, two and three, there was a lot of tread laid down all over the new asphalt. The rumor was that a French driver was responsible for that. Can you confirm or deny that you laid that down? SCOTT DIXON: I heard the same rumor (laughter). Q. You must have had some traction trouble because it looked like the tracks were ever. SIMON PAGENAUD: I made it. IMS allowed me to do a few laps. It was for media purposes. But they allowed me to do pretty much whatever I wanted. I made myself pretty happy there (laughter). The car was smoking. Q. Scott, as someone that's actually raced here before on the road course, with the repavement, the differences between the two cars, what are some things you would point out of the feel of it being different? SCOTT DIXON: I think there's much more flow to it. They've created better passing areas. Turn one before was quite fast and so was actually seven. The it was very hard to get deep inside to overtake. I think they've improved one and seven. You know, the flow of eight, nine, ten is better. Even the complex, before you get to the front straight, it just works better. Ryan has been on different configurations I think from the old one as well, which I think they've just done a very good job. Obviously with the new tarmac, it's got a lot of grip, too. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, we will see you next week at the race.     FastScripts by ASAP Sports |
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