Being immersed in the Dallara simulator – the 650-ton spider with 5,900 feet of fiber optic cable and 16 monitors to visualize race courses – was a wild ride, Juan Pablo Montoya said.

Montoya joined Team Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Will Power this week to be strapped in to the high-end simulator at Dallara Automobili’s base in Verano Melegari, Italy. Housed in a 40x40-foot, two-story room, multiple IndyCar Series drivers and race engineers have utilized its broad range of data collection the past two years.

For Montoya, the former CART champion, Formula One and stock car driver who has enlisted to drive the Chevrolet-powered No. 2 Team Penske car this season, there are short- and long-term benefits from participating in the program.

“For me, I have to get up to speed quickly,” Montoya said (in photo above debriefing with engineers). “The simulator is great for picking up braking points and learning the layouts. There are four tracks that I’ve never raced anything on before. Five if you count the Indianapolis road course because it’s going to be a bit different than the Formula One layout. That makes the simulator work very critical for me."

Andrea Toso, head of research and development for Dallara, said the sensory immersion a driver experiences in “their office” is the distinguishing factor. It’s complete with all the accessories (pedals, brake bias adjuster, anti-roll bar adjuster, and even the driver’s custom seat in a full IndyCar tub), and replicating situations such as traffic, low grip and system failures are in the hands of the programmers.

All IndyCar Series racing circuits but the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course can be projected onto the large monitors that wrap 180 degrees around the chassis. The system incorporates Dolby Surround Sound, too.

Toso said the simulator not only provides training for driver and engineers on different tracks, but fundamentally allows engineers to evaluate a car or define and narrow items to test on track. Team Penske’s Ron Ruzewski (Montoya’s engineer) and David Faustino (Power’s engineer) drew up and monitored the testing program.

“It was a great experience,” said Castroneves, the 2013 series championship runner-up and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner. “I haven’t done a lot of simulated driving before, but I came here to learn and I certainly did that. The hope is that we will be even more prepared when we get to St. Pete."

The season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is March 28-30 and is preceded by an Open Test at Barber Motorsports Park. Engine manufacturer and team testing continues in the interim, with the Team Penske trio participating next in Chevrolet sessions Feb. 10 at Auto Club Speedway and Feb. 12 at Sonoma Raceway.

“The simulator is very interesting, and we were able to quickly see that it is a useful tool in preparing for the season,” said Power, who closed the ’13 season with consecutive victories. “I really believe we were able to learn things that will help us all season."