Honda & IndyCar
By Andrew Cutler
December 6 2008
I have to admit this up front: prior to Friday, I had never really been knowledgeable of the finer details - and the costs - of Honda's IndyCar engine program. Given their recent dramatic departure from F1 however, I - no doubt like several of my fellow IndyCar fans - found myself wondering; "could IndyCar be next"?
Obviously, it was time for some brushing up on the basics of Honda's IndyCar engine program. And here, in a nutshell, is what I found out: It is expected to pay for itself.
And, as far as I can determine, it does.
The deal works like this:
The 3.5 litre V8 that Honda provides to the IndyCar squads is designed, built and maintained by Honda Performance Development, based in Santa Clara, CA: Ilmor Engineering assists with rebuilds and some occasional R&D work. The teams lease the engines at a cost of approximately $1 million per car for a full season, or $250,000+ per race weekend for part time & "one off" squads. HPD is expected to make the revenues from those fees cover all of their expenses for the year. If there IS any bugetary shortfall (not that I could find evidence of that happening in recent years), American Honda is expected to cover the gap.
In the end, therefore, the only "cost" to Honda for their involvement in the IndyCar Series should be the fees that they pay to be the primary sponsor at select races (which in '09 will be St. Petersburg, Mid-Ohio, Toronto & Motegi, which they already own outright anyways) and whatever they pay in "production" costs for any advertising & merchandising that they do with an IndyCar Series tie-in. All of these expenses are normally paid for out of the annual advertising budgets of American Honda (St. Pete & Mid-Ohio), Honda Canada (Toronto) & Honda (Motegi).
So, I am breathing a whole lot easier now that I know this!
Here is a just-released press statement from the folks at Honda Performance Development, re-iterating their commitment to the IndyCar Series.
www.indycar.com
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:12:06:20:40:10 by IndyAndy.