"The work load and pressures on the guys at Champ Car are huge. If you have a vast amount of work to do you can't give it as much thought and time as some of the questions maybe deserve and you make decisions without necessarily researching it as much as you would like to."
Micklewright says the fact that the DP01 is a 'spec car' shouldn't devalue the level of engineering that's gone into the car and will also be required to get the best out of it.
"I don't think I'd say it's a return to basics," he said, "It's certainly quite an involved car as far as the geometries and the aero package and so on. It's right up there on the cutting edge. I think the difference now is our inability to fine-tune beyond a certain point.
"Any car we've raced in the past has been fairly well-evolved and you had much more open opportunities to change things around. So I think one of the tasks that's there for all of the teams is, first of all, to fully identify the areas that need to be addressed, but more so the areas that can be addressed and to find the best compromises given those constraints.
"Anybody who might think it's a dumbed-down or brainless piece just because they're all the same is missing the point. We all have the same equipment, but it's equipment of a very high degree of sophistication."
Micklewright believes it will be difficult for the likes of Newman/Haas and Forsythe to be able to find much advantage over the less well-resourced teams.
"At this point, it's certainly had a levelling effect on the playing field," he observed, "I think there are gains to be made, here and there. What size those gains might be is a bit of a question. I think for the most part we'll see the grid line up pretty much the way it always does, whether it be driver talent or engineering support and resources available to the teams. But I think the gap between the quickest and the slowest is going to be significantly closer than it has been in the past. It really will be a case of getting the last thousandth out of it."
Lisles takes confidence for the future from Champ Car's new TV package.
"Potentially, in the long-term, and hopefully there is a long-term, the reorganisation of the TV is a terrific step forwards," he said, "I applaud the series owners for getting that done and getting it done relatively early compared to recent history and getting it done for a number of years. Unfortunately, it will take time for that to be something the teams can use to raise sponsorship because the reality is we need to have more people watching us to sell the kind of sponsorship we really need to run these cars.
