Chevrolet, Honda to provide engines for 10 cars each?

[zako85]

AUTO RACING - INDYCAR: Limited Engine Supply In 2012?

[beachbum]

Nothing new here. Honda indicated that Indy Car required each manufacturer to be able to supply 40% of the field. Since the expected car count is 24 - 25, that is 10 each. Lotus / Judd will pick up the remainder after Honda and GM

[nigelred5]

10/10/4-6 sounds about right based on the previously announced teams, the current pecking order and each engine manufacturers likely resources and budgets. I don't expect the Judd to be able to shoulder as much as the other two unless Proton is really going to pony up a serious budget for the lotus badgded engine.

[Oli_M]

Where are we at the moment with what has been announced?

HONDA
Ganassi - 4 Cars
Foyt - 1 Car

CHEVY
Penske - 3 Cars

LOTUS
None officially announced, but given the current large sponsorship, assuming KV will use Lotus branded engines - so 3 Cars?

Will be interesting to see where the other teams go - I wonder how much will be a team saying "We want to use X engines" versus the engine companies saying "We want X team to use our engine"?

[Chamoo]

LOTUS
None officially announced, but given the current large sponsorship, assuming KV will use Lotus branded engines - so 3 Cars?

I wouldn't get too comfy thinking the Lotus engines would end up at KV.

[Dr. Krogshöj]

There was a rumor that KVRT actually wants Honda engines. It all depends how much money is actually involved in the Lotus branding deal. If it is not a significant sum I can see KVRT run three cars with Honda; with the bulk of the sponsorship already coming from GEICO, PDVSA, and in Sato's case, Honda itself (through Panasonic and Formula Dream).

[00steven]

If engine suppliers are limited to 10 cars, I doubt that Honda would use 3 on KVRT. I'm sure they would rather have Andretti or Newman-Haas instead.

[SoCalPVguy]

What this implies to me is that JUDD is expected to default (and I personally think there is a really good chnace of this) and not supply engines in 2012, so Honda and Chevy want to be on notice they will not or can not supply the entire field. This also implies that if (or when) Judd backs out, the IndyCar fields may be limited to 20 cars, down from the 26-28 we are seeing now. This IMHO is a very bad thing.

[beachgirl]

Yep. Right back to the "old" days.

[Marbles]

If memory serves correctly, Judd powered some backmarkers many moons ago in CART and F1. To be honest, I can't see things changing much now IF they can answer the bell. Has Judd ever produced a dominant engine?

I can't believe Cosworth doesn't have their chips in the game especially with Kalkhoven in the mix. He and Forsythe still own it? Possible contractually restricted because of their F1 participation? Perhaps nobody's interested in badging it and they don't want to go it on their own?.