Firestone Racing are bringing more than 1,400 tires to this weekend’s Sonsio Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course.
Each of the 27 drivers will receive the following allocation:
- Five sets of the Black Primary tire. Rookies get an extra set for practice one on Friday.
- Four sets of the Red Alternate tire.
- Three sets of the Gray Rain tire.
Cara Krstolic, Director of Race Tire Engineering and Manufacturing, on NTT INDYCAR SERIES tires:
“The Firestone Firehawk primary and alternate (red sidewall) tires have the same construction as those supplied for the IMS road course the last two years. However, we made a change to the primary tire compound for this race and expect it to exhibit a slight decrease in grip and could show a reduced amount of wear compared to last year.
The compound for the alternate tire remains unchanged from last year, but while it should provide the same grip level, with the added weight of the hybrid engine this year it could show more wear.
Once again, these changes are intended to provide a wider drop-off gap between the harder primary tire and the softer alternate tire than what we saw in last year’s Sonsio Grand Prix.”
INDYCAR has made a slight alteration to tire rules for this weekend’s Sonsio Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course. The following change will be in affect for Saturday’s race. Each driver will be required to use:
- Two sets of alternate compound tires (one more than previously required)
- Two sets of primary compound tires (one more than previously required)
The update strives to ensure an all-out, driving on the limit, thrilling and entertaining product for fans and generate even more strategic challenges for North America’s premier open-wheel racing series. Additionally – working with Firestone – the current, standard event weekend road and street circuit tire allocation that began this season (five sets of primaries and five sets of alternates) was contemplated with this tire requirement format option in mind. The tire allocation for the IMS road course, the only two-day road and street circuit event on the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule, remains unchanged at five sets of primaries and four sets of alternates.
President of INDYCAR, J Douglas Boles commented saying:
“INDYCAR is continually looking into ways to improve an already extraordinary on-track product. “Firestone is a terrific partner, and their higher degradation alternate tire has given strategists plenty to think about on road and street circuits this year. We expect this update will challenge teams and drivers even more.”
