ARLINGTON, Texas — Ahead of most NTT IndyCar Series races, drivers will do many sessions in their respective manufacturer’s simulators to get a feel for what their next race will be.
However, for the upcoming Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, nobody has driven the 14-turn, 2.73-mile street circuit before.
With racing being a high-tech sport, simulator software has become crucial to helping engineers and drivers craft the best setups ahead of a race weekend. The amount of unknowns heading into Thursday’s (March 12) track walk meant that a lot of drivers had to be mindful that their simulator time might not be fully accurate.
Such was the case for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster.
“We didn’t have any bump profiling on the sim, so the actual layout of the corners are very similar, so that was good,” Foster said. “But you can’t really do much when you’re driving on a surface that you know isn’t going to be right.”
The gearing might not be the same as the simulator because of how different the surface profile will be in person compared to the virtual world.
“So it’s kind of helpful to kind of get a layout of the track in your own head, so I don’t go out there now and not know where it’s going,” Foster said. “But yeah, from a setup standpoint, not helpful at all.”
2026 IndyCar Java House Grand Prix of Arlington Preview
Several other drivers echoed Foster’s sentiments.
Foster’s teammate Graham Rahal watched the other RLL driver, Mick Schumacher‘s, simulator footage and it looked very different from what he saw on the track walk Thursday.
“I think probably the coolest attribute, though, of professional racing drivers is their ability to adapt fast when you get onto a track that you haven’t been to,” Rahal said. “Within a lap or two, honestly, you pretty much have got it sort of figured out, and that’s kind of crazy to think about, but it’s the truth and then year after year.
“You’ll remember where … I joke around, I tell people all the time like, it’s hard for me to remember my daughter’s birthday sometimes, but I can tell you exactly where a bump is at the apex of turn 2 at Toronto, you know, and that’s the way our brains work.”
Without having an accurate scan, elevation has been a key point of focus for some drivers. David Malukas was one of several drivers who said that the elevation changes his perception of preparation.
“We know which way is left and right, but that’s about it,” Malukas said. “Because even on the track [walk] I was like, ‘Oh, there’s a massive hill right here. We’re going down.’ That was not on the sim, so yeah, it’s going to be a lot of question marks.”
Dennis Hauger and Rinus VeeKay echoed these thoughts, highlighting that the lack of an existing laser scan of the Arlington street circuit has left the IndyCar field with plenty of learning to do on the track this weekend.
Cars will be out on the track later on Friday, as IndyCar takes on its first practice session on the streets of Arlington at 4 p.m. ET.
