Detailed street scan, simulator, help drivers prepare for Indy in Markham

Romain Grosjean has never visited Markham, Ont., but he’ll have driven its streets dozens of times before getting behind the wheel of his car at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy.

Grosjean has been training for Canada’s only IndyCar race in the Driver-In-The-Loop Simulator, a Honda Racing Corporation USA tool to help drivers prepare for races. Logging hours in the cutting-edge trainer is a necessity to prepare for the street course around downtown Markham.

“They scan the radius of the corners, the bumps and the tarmac, and they put it in that simulator,” Grosjean said in a video call from his home in Miami. “It’s a big, big, big video game that’s actually very real.

“We go around and we do laps, and that’s how we initially learn the track.”

The Grand Prix of Toronto was one of the oldest races on the IndyCar schedule, with the first race held in 1986. Exhibition Place, Toronto’s fairgrounds, had hosted the event since its inaugural race.

IndyCar and the City of Markham announced on Sept. 3 that it was moving the race to the suburb on Toronto’s northeast border, with a 12-turn, 3.52-kilometre track that runs between Kennedy Road, Enterprise Boulevard, Unionville GO tracks and Highway 407.

Since the temporary course had never even been built until this week, learning its twists and turns – especially changes in surface texture – was essential for Grosjean and all the other drivers for safety and performance.

“I’m hoping that all the bumps were scanned properly because that is the biggest challenge coming to a road course,” said Grosjean, adding that the Exhibition Place track was notoriously tough. “The Princes’ Gate corner was slippery as hell, and then we have the manhole cover and the section in front of the pit.

“It was bumpy and crazy, but that’s the beauty of a street course, you know? You never know, and you get to adapt all the time.”

It’s the job of Davide Tarsitano, head of vehicle performance at Honda Racing Corporation USA, to help Grosjean and other drivers on Honda teams to have to adapt as little as possible.

Honda’s Driver-In-The-Loop Simulator has a physical IndyCar cockpit featuring 360-degree yaw rotation and a 270-degree visual field, with real aerodynamic tracks that combine data from Google Maps and the laser scan of the roads completed by a third-party company.

“Even by measuring this track, even by scanning it, you really don’t know until the event what you’re gonna find out,” said Tarsitano. “You’re going to have a model of it. You’re not going to have the exact reality of it.

“All models are wrong in some capacity. It’s just about who is going to get it the least wrong.”

Chevrolet has its own simulator for its teams.

Grosjean, who drives for Dale Coyne Racing, said that after practising in the simulator he will familiarize himself with the course in person.

“We’re going to come to Markham on Thursday, and we’re going to walk the track,” said Grosjean. “By walking the track, you see the manhole cover, you see the gradient, you see the bump, you see the corners, you see the angle of the walls.

“Then you jump in a car and you gradually go faster and faster around the track.”

Practice is on Friday, qualifying is Saturday and then the race is Sunday afternoon.

Last year, Pato O’Ward used a strong tire strategy to charge from 10th on the starting grid and earn his first career victory on the streets of Toronto.

Alex Palou will be the driver to watch this weekend. He finished four seconds ahead of Felix Rosenqvist at Portland for his sixth IndyCar victory of the season on Sunday. That extended his lead to 110 points over Kyle Kirkwood in the driver rankings as he closes in on his fifth Indy Car title.