Honda’s recent warning to IndyCar that its long tenure as a series engine supplier could end in the near future unless costs are dramatically reduced raised a slew of new questions, one of the most obvious being: What does Chevrolet – IndyCar’s other engine supply partner – think?
Chevrolet won the 2023 Manufacturers’ Championship and the Indianapolis 500 with its 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 engine built by its partners at Ilmor Engineering, the company co-founded by Mario Illien, Paul Morgan, and Roger Penske, whose Penske Entertainment firm also owns the IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Where Honda was unusually candid in sharing open thoughts and clear insights on its future participation in IndyCar, concepts for cost reduction, and urgency for major cost reductions to be made, Chevrolet held firm to its longstanding preference for applying extreme discretion with its public-facing answers.
Asked if GM and Chevy would be willing to remain in IndyCar and serve as its sole supplier if Honda chooses to leave, Jim Campbell, General Motors’ VP of Performance and Motorsports, responded with the following from a prepared script:
“I would say what Roger Penske has been doing with the series, along with Mark Miles and Jay Frye, and when it comes to the 500, with Doug Boles and the leadership team there, we really love the momentum of the series,” he told RACER.
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“We love the action on the track. Immense number of passing moments; wheel-to-wheel competition at amazing speeds. I think Jay had mentioned that there were more passes this year than the previous year. They had five or six races that had the most passes they’ve ever had. So we really like what we see there on the track, and other series don’t have that level of passing. We love that excitement.
“And as a manufacturer, we look at the metrics and more fans are attending, we’re seeing more of the races with higher and higher attendance rates going up the right direction. Obviously, TV is important, but then social media is becoming more important. And the trend we’re seeing is really positive as well when we’re talking about social media engagements, followings, and streaming video views. So that’s what we love to see and so we’re proud to race in the series.
“So with that said, we were proud of that ICE (internal combustion engines) that we delivered to the series in partnership with Ilmor. We’re proud of the technology in that engine; it’s important with what we’ve done on engines like our Corvette engine that’s in the production rooms and on track right now. That’s been a great learning that’s gone from track to a production car and [there are] tremendous amounts that we continue to learn on the racing side.
“So obviously small displacement, DI (direct-injection) boosting… there’s still a long ways to go on internal combustion engines. We’ve got to continue to find ways to improve performance, increase efficiency, and keep it relevant to what we’re racing, with this decision the series made to bring hybrids in this coming year. So we’re working to be part of that team that works on its development.
“With all that said, we’re involved in nine different series globally with a number of brands. We compete fiercely in the showrooms against OEMs (manufacturers), and for wins on the track.
“The are moments where the series and the other stakeholders and the OEMs come together to talk about, how do we improve the series? How do we make it better in every way? More appealing for fans? The costs? In nine series, including IndyCar, we do that on a regular basis and it can be productive in times where you want to get traction quicker. We have proven that we can actually work to the benefit of the whole series to make it all better, and then we go back to competing firstly on the track, and then the showroom. That’s what needs to happen here.
“I am really proud of what Jay Frye has been doing, bringing us all together on a technology plan that’s been happening over the past five or six years. We have the forums to do all that, to figure out how to bring costs down in the series. We’re doing this in every series we’re in. It’s standard operating procedures. That’s where we need to really hash out these ideas of how we can lower costs.
“The other proposal from our competing OEM (Honda) and what they have said recently… my view is that in the right forum, we can discuss how to lower costs. It could be in engineering, in aero, aero development, aero testing, wind tunnels, on-track testing; how much time we give the teams. In other series where we’ve done this, we’re relying more on simulation. So there’s a lot of ways to do it; that’s the right spot to do it – with the OEMs — when the series calls us together. That’s the forum to do that, and that’s when we’ll do it.”
Returning to the original question, Campbell was asked if a yes or no answer was possible to offer on whether GM and Chevy would be willing to remain in IndyCar and serve as its sole supplier if Honda chooses to leave.
“GM has, in the past,” he said. “Certainly, we want to compete against other OEMs. That’s part of the storylines. I read an observation that there’s no Chevy flags or shirts on the fans out there that we see, that there are no corrals. I personally talk to all of our customers of Corvettes and Camaros; Indianapolis and Detroit are a couple examples. But there is passion for that part of the story, in addition to the amazing drivers and team and crew. And that’s the way it should be. It should be multi-dimensional. The storylines of IndyCar is multi-dimensional.
“So our strong desire and preference is to compete against other OEMs in every series that we race. We want to compete with other OEMs that want to be in the series. There have been moments in time where the company was the sole supplier. It’s not our preference.”
Asked if GM would support a move to a spec engine, one that was built – as Honda suggested – by Ilmor that could be used and badged by a wide array of manufacturers, Campbell said:
“I would like to continue developing our internal combustion engine. We can learn from it, extract more about how we deliver power, efficiency, and durability. Translate those into ICE engines we have in our portfolio just like we’ve been doing for years. And then in terms of cost reduction, as I said, it’s fun to have that dialogue with the series, hosting all the stakeholders that have a vested interest in that, with a variety of ideas, financial and things, multiple ideas.
“I just talked about aero ideas with ways to contain costs through the amount of aerodynamic testing you can do, simulation runs you can do. And the reason why I know this is because we’re in other series, and every other series does this. That’s the place to do it, in private conversations with the series and competing manufacturers. So we’ll look at all ideas, but we have a desire to continue developing the internal combustion engine we have, integrating with the hybrid that’s coming. Look for all the areas where we can compete with our teams to win races, win championships. We want to be in series where other OEMs want to be there, too.”
The final question posed to Campbell was whether, with supply contracts due to expire at the end of 2026, GM sees the same urgency as Honda to reduce the annual costs to participate in IndyCar as an engine supplier.
“In terms of making a decision, or a decision about participation and the commitment level that we have, we’re committed,” he said. “We’re in. Every OEM has to make a decision on that. What we will do is work with the series to find the right ways to make the series better in every respect.
“One way is how you lower costs. The other way is how you increase the competition, attract fans, create a deeper engagement with the fans. In some cases, we’ll do that with a series and other stakeholders and other OEMs.
“In terms of looking at ways to increase engagement of the fans, we also have an activity that we do there on our own with our own efforts. And so that’s the right place to do it. I’ll say it one more time: We want to be a series in which other OEMs want to race.”