Q: How bad is it for some of the Honda teams and title contenders right now for engine allocation for the year? Is Palou staring down two penalties this year? Do we have any idea what is causing a much higher than normal number of issues?
P.S. Since I know the series often reads the Mailbag, I need to tip my hat. IMS was dressed up in its proper Sunday best for the 500. I think I walked the entire facility before 10am and it was impressive. I already renewed for 2025 and can’t wait to see if I got a seat upgrade closer to Turn 1. Also, Doug Boles is so good at his job.
Ryan, West Michigan
MP: If we knew what Honda was getting wrong, so would they and they’d stop getting it wrong, so that’s a no, unfortunately.
Leaving Indy, not one Chevy driver was on their fourth engine (once you get to five, grid penalties start and that car no longer contributes points towards the manufacturers’ championship).
Leaving Indy, five Honda-powered drivers were on their fourth, and that’s with 12 races left to run. Two of those five in Kyffin Simpson and Graham Rahal had their teams get calls from Honda asking for engine changes for Detroit, so they got popped with six-spot penalties after qualifying.
To your specific point, yes, Palou, the championship leader, is on his fourth. Same with Ganassi teammate Marcus Armstrong and RLL’s Pietro Fittipaldi, so they’ll definitely be receiving penalties in the near future. Ganassi’s Scott Dixon is on his third, and of Honda’s other contenders (prior to the Detroit race), all three Andretti drivers and RLL’s Christian Lundgaard are on their third.
Doug will be the governor of Indiana in the next 10 years.
Q: Can we get a shoutout to Jonathan Diuguid?! The man is responsible for the rise of Porsche Penske Motorsport and now is an Indy 500 winner! And taking the No. 2 stand with so little notice? Very well deserved.
Daniel Borges Martins, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
MP: Indeed. JD’s an excellent guy, and excellent at his job(s). I posited the theory to Tim Cindric that Diuguid was primed to quarterback the No. 2 car at Indy and lead it to victory in a way he might not have been prepared to do years ago as a race engineer, and not because he was lacking in anything in that former role, but with the full-picture view he has now after assembling and running Porsche’s factory IMSA/WEC prototype program on behalf of Penske, he’s at an entirely different level of skill and understanding of the sport, which made being the boss of the entire No. 2 effort and calling strategy less of an overwhelming proposition on short notice. Tim agreed.
Q: I’ve been trying to engage with someone, anyone, who has the knowledge to talk about the engine competition in IndyCar right now. Chevy totally waxed Honda at the Speedway which I don’t think has happened so obviously in quite some time, if ever.
If the regulation changes you referenced last week were to slow down development on the current 2.2L TTV6, does this put Honda at a disadvantage that they can only make up with hybrid development? How different are the internals on both engines? Is there a group or a resource that dives into more technical aspects of the engine competition?
For a while I thought Honda was the company that took their engines more seriously, while Chevy just farmed out the work to Ilmor. I now see it as GM being totally hands-on and spending a ton of money and R&D on their engine where Honda seems awfully quiet. Am I reading this wrong?
Tim, Stamford, CT
MP: Other than changes to the headers and exhaust collectors on the Chevys and Hondas and the related alterations to turbo and wastegate positioning, there’s nothing we can see within the motors to know what’s been changed. Whenever I want to have someone laugh at me, I know I just need to go find folks from Chevy or Honda and ask them what they’ve done differently inside their motors, because that’s just not something they tell you in a competitive sport. If the engines were single-source, it might be different.
I’ve never doubted Team Chevy and Ilmor. They whooped Honda the first many years in this formula, then Honda gained the upper hand for a while, then it got really close, then Honda took it back in terms of drivers’ championships but Chevy got more manufacturers’ titles, and who knows where we’ll end up this year in both categories, although Chevy is looking like the MFG crown will stay in its hands.
If Honda stays, and if the mostly-frozen-development formula is implemented, there would need to be some criteria set before that freeze happened. Honda, or any manufacturer for that matter, wouldn’t agree to start the development lockdown while sitting on a notable power, torque, fuel economy, or reliability deficit. As I’d see it, both would need to submit motors to IndyCar for independent testing and benchmarking before signoff.
Q: The non-penalty on Scott Dixon for running Ryan Hunter-Reay into the grass was officiating at its inconsistent worst. Yes, Dixon is well respected, but that move was clearly a reaction block, not a positioning on the track. Do you think Ferrucci or one of the rookies would have been let off without a penalty for such a move?
Second, is there a plan at Arrow McLaren or IndyCar to hire a charm school teacher for Alexander Rossi? In the post-race interview he seemed to be heading in the direction of accusing Newgarden of cheating because somehow, he made the fuel conservation work and Rossi did not. He caught himself, but could not quite spit out a congratulatory comment that should have followed.
Marwood Stout, Camarillo, CA
MP: I hope Alexander never changes. He’s a unicorn that way. No other driver today, or any other era I can think of in IndyCar, is anything like him. His ragey-contempt for everything in life — mostly people — is a gift. And he can also be incredibly kind and sincerely warm when he wants to be that way.
I’ll take 100 Rossis over a driver who has nothing interesting to say, can only talk about racing, or merely wants to rattle off their sponsor’s names.
Q: What happens with the engine in Katherine Legge’s car? Seems that it blew quite early in the race. If it’s a Honda issue, maybe a bad part or incorrect assembly, does the team get a “credit” for future purchases, or are they out of luck?
And second, how much would you charge to watch a race with me and my Long Beach Turn 1 marshals from Charlie 7? If you watched with us you could answer all of our questions right then and there! We would even pack in your favorite beer and racing snacks!
Sean Raymond
MP: All depends on the team and driver. There’s no law requiring Honda or Chevy to send invoices to teams, so based on the situation, or the status of the team or driver with each manufacturer, some would get a bill and others would not. Hard to say here as Katherine is a favorite of Honda, but Coyne is a straight customer team, not a factory-affiliated one.
Charge you? If I can swing it, I’ll come watch some of the race with you next year and bring the beer.