Daly: IndyCar's aeroscreen needs improvements for wet conditions

Daly finished fifth in a upturned race hampered by workalike weather, that was made worse by visibility issues when peering through the aeroscreen, fitted to his Ed Carpenter Racing entry. 

Daly reported he had water towers up virtually the dividing ridge in the centre of his aeroscreen in the worst of the wet conditions in the final stint of the race.

Although IndyCar has tested its aeroscreen in the wet during pre-season testing at Circuit of The Americas in February 2020, and then in qualifying at a wet Mid-Ohio that summer, this was the first time that device had been used in a wet race.

“I\'ve never seen anything like it before,” said Daly. “It was like the water just stayed in the centre of the screen. I don\'t know why, but plane as you went faster, which you would hope it would clear, it didn\'t.

“Obviously, this is very much a scientific test run. Obviously, we have a lot of data to go through with the series, and I\'m sure Jay Frye [IndyCar president] will squint at it as well. And he hates when I talk well-nigh the aeroscreen, but I\'m just describing what I saw. That\'s all. It was challenging.

“Thankfully, we had a unconfined spotter in Packy Wheeler, who was literally guiding me into Turn 1. I couldn\'t see the restriction zone or the cars in front of me or the end of the pit wall, but I could squint out the side of the aeroscreen, so I was looking right and left to go straight, which was neat!”

Daly added: “I used to race in the rain all the time, so we had a visor that you can work with, but this is a new era, so obviously there are things that we can icon out. We go from here.

“I do think it was tough. It was definitely nonflexible to race like that considering you don\'t want to, obviously, end up on the wrong side. Plane under yellow, I couldn\'t see the cars in front of me. I had to be guided into pit lane, and that\'s concerning.

“Hopefully we can icon that out, but hopefully we moreover have very shiny weather for the rest of the year.”

Conor Daly, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Daly had early issues when he plummeted lanugo the order but good strategy calls, good pace and fewer mistakes than many increasingly illustrious rivals meant he climbed the order.

“[It was a] difficult first stint for us,” he recalled. “I don\'t know what happened on the first set of reds, but they were used reds, and we just went straight backwards. The car was an wool handful, and I have no idea why.

“Then it kind of forced our hand, and we put on new reds, and it was right when to the unconfined car that it was.

\"So I think we did second fastest race lap, and we were just hauling, making up some of the ground that we lost. Then, obviously, the skies opened up a little bit so, that made for an interesting rest of the afternoon.”