The over-riding topic of the Verizon IndyCar Series offseason has been the development and continued testing of the aero kits by INDYCAR engine partners Chevrolet and Honda and will provide a distinctly new look between the brands that will be used beginning with the second race of the 2015 season – the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 29.

A select group of INDYCAR teams were chosen to test a variety of aero kits, with Honda and Chevrolet analyzing the various designs. On Jan. 18, the final designs will be submitted to INDYCAR officials for approval.

The season-opening race at the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet in Brasilia, Brazil, on March 8 will be conducted with the current Dallara chassis that has performed impressively since its debut in 2012. But a few days before teams leave for the capital city of Brazil, the road/street course and short oval aero kit will be delivered to their respective teams.

Once the Verizon IndyCar Series teams return from Brazil there will be little time to rest as the new aero kits will be added to the cars and teams immediately try to analyze what the new kits will do in competition.

“The aero kit thing is something I’m not sure people fully understand,” said Mike Hull, managing director of Chip Ganassi Racing Teams. “Chevrolet and Honda have chosen teams to test their aero kits and they have the right to do. After that they have to submit to INDYCAR what is in their kit – the high-downforce and low-downforce kit. Once it’s approved by INDYCAR and not until it is approved can they start building parts.

“They have 60 days to produce tooling and parts for their respective half of the field. The kits are delivered the first week of March 1 to all of the race teams.”

For the Verizon IndyCar Series teams taking delivery of the kits just before boarding flights to South America will be like getting a present before the holidays without having a chance to play with it before immediately taking off on a vacation.

“Think about the calendar,” Hull continued. “All of the race teams will be in Brazil when the high-downforce kits are delivered. They return from Brazil and 12 days later we have an open test at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama March 16-17. That is the first time the body kits will be publicly seen in the field. So the teams have nine working days to have their cars kitted up and ready to go.

“You can test prior to Barber with the new kit so there will be some teams that will try to go somewhere before Barber and they have extended the test period to Wednesday of St. Pete week so teams will go test somewhere with the kits again and arrive at St. Petersburg with the kits on the cars. That is what is going to happen with testing.”

Once the season starts teams will literally have to be in midseason form because there is a short time frame to test the street/road course kit before another game-changing kit is delivered.

“Thirty days later on April 1 everybody gets the distribution on the Indy kit,” Hull said. “INDYCAR will have an open test for us at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 3. That means we’ll have the road course kit for the races at St. Pete, Barber, Long Beach and the new event at New Orleans Motorsports Park. We’ll head to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis and use the high-speed oval kit for the first time in a race at the biggest race of them all – the Indianapolis 500.”

The final race of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season was at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., on Aug. 30. The offseason may have been long by past standards but it was very important to the teams to work on other important projects before the focus turns to the aero kit development.

“What teams need to do is make sure in the winter you have everything well organized like your international containers, all the damper work, organizing your pit equipment and vehicle dynamics testing,” Hull said. “Everything has to be well buttoned up when you get your kits because you will then be testing your aero kits.

“It will be game on once that happens.”