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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Grand Prix of Arlington will race past AT&T Stadium the home of the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Grand Prix of Arlington will race past AT&T Stadium the home of the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a location that most IndyCar fans won\u2019t be familiar with, though IndyCar in its former \u2018Champ Car\u2019 guise raced at the former Arlington Downs Raceway dirt oval from 1947 to 1950.<\/p>\n
Very little has been glimpsed into the new 4.3km, anticlockwise, 14-turn street course, which races past the home of the Dallas Cowboys NFL team.<\/p>\n
This week, Honda released an onboard simulation of the course, though even that came with a caveat.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a place like this that\u2019s brand-new, you don\u2019t have a full surface scan,\u201d Ed Carpenter Racing driver Alexander Rossi explained of the simulated lap.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou only have essentially a GPS scan with walls kind of placed around the perimeter.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth Honda and Chevy have kind of the same track model, so you don\u2019t have any sort of the bumps modelled or grip differential depending on surfaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a great tool to at least know what corner comes next \u2013 but in terms of brake points and grip levels, how fast you can actually go, the line, where bumps are, that sort of thing, everyone will be figuring that out together kind of starting from zero.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rossi\u2019s teammate Christian Rasmussen said there is little you can do to prepare for a new circuit.<\/p>\n
Simulation time is also limited, given the inherent inaccuracies of what is essentially guesswork.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a little bit probably less than we usually do,\u201d said Rasmussen of simulation time.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because we don\u2019t have that track scan yet. Without all of the bumps and undulations of the track, it\u2019s not really precise enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you kind of get the layout of the actual track, there\u2019s not really much more you can find there before we get a proper scan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe layout looks really cool. It\u2019s hard to really know what to expect before you\u2019ve actually hit the track.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike we were talking about earlier, without really having 100 percent scans of what the track\u2019s going to feel like with bumps and so on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have an exciting weekend ahead, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drivers will have one practice session on Saturday (AEDT) and another on Sunday before qualifying for Monday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n
As for a form guide, Rossi said the playfield will be level for the \u201cfirst 20 minutes\u201d but the cream will ultimately rise to the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time you get to qualifying, there are still the teams that are superior on street courses,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like the wet, for example, where a driver can overcome a pace deficit that\u2019s inherent between cars or teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, it will be an equaliser in the very beginning, but then everyone will get the most out of their car and it will be back to the normal order of operations, I would assume.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rasmussen added: \u201cI think where you\u2019ll see I think the teams that are usually very strong on street courses will probably be also strong here just because their packages are that good and kind of translates across different tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s race is a 70-lap affair and gets underway at 4:17am AEDT with coverage live and exclusively on Stan Sport.<\/p>\n
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