IndyCar has changed the schedule for this week’s Indianapolis 500 Open Test in response to adverse weather forecasts.

High winds are forecast for Thursday (local time) running before a high probability of rain on the Friday of the two-day affair, when the field will be in action ahead of next month’s showpiece event.

IndyCar has chosen to add time to the Thursday programme, which will now begin an hour earlier at 10:00 local time/ET (Friday 00:00 AEST) and end half an hour later at 18:30.

As before, the first two hours are for Veteran drivers and the next two hours for Rookie Orientation/Refreshers, with the extra time making for an extended, four-and-a-half-hour all-in session which follows.

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The Friday schedule remains a single, six-hour session for all drivers.

A total of 33 drivers have been named for the test, although there are set to be 34 cars entering the race event, and hence the return of bumping in order to qualify for the 11 rows of three, with Abel Motorsports announcing its intent to field RC Enerson.

The confirmed additions to the usual field are Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport), Tony Kanaan (McLaren), Ryan Hunter-Reay and Stefan Wilson (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing), and Katherine Legge (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing).

Furthermore, Ed Carpenter is back in his eponymous team’s oval-only entry and Takuma Sato returns to the #11 Chip Ganassi Racing entry which Marcus Armstrong drives on the street circuits and road courses.

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Schedule: Indianapolis 500 Open Test Revised