3d Manufacturer to be announced tomorrow

[Mad_Hatter]

2012 is shaping to be a great season.

[MDS]

Randy has said its imparative that each engine manufacture have about a third of the the field so that no one become too dominate. I don't know how they would enforce that, but that's their plan.

A possible breakdown might look like this, assuming the teams stay at their current car count. This is all speculation as some new teams will probably come in and at least one or two existing teams are in danger of folding, but this sort of breakdown would leave each team with about eight entries apiece.

Honda
Target Ganassi
Andretti Autosport/AFS
Dryer and Reinbold

Chevy
Penske
Panther
de Ferran Dragon
AJFE
Sarah Fisher Racing

Lotus
KV Racing
FAZZT
Newman Haas
HVM

There are some obvious loyalties and after that it would come down to which team gets the best deal from which manufacture. Yes there won't be "Factory teams" but we all know some will get more help than others.

THAT is a very good question. If Lotus-Cosworth only signs up KV, that isn't doing much for Cosworth. I'm sure there are all sorts of variables in that scenario though. Of course KV's engine likely is at a bargain comparitively speaking. And Cosworth does still have some F1 teams to pay the bills, for now.

Only a small fraction of Cosworth's revenue stream comes from racing. Most of what Cosworth does is make components for automotive and aviation engines. They also spec build engines and electronics for road and race cars. They're like Ilmor, but bigger.

[Enjun Pullr]

"IndyCar officials revealed that the 2012 engine will feature up to 100 extra horsepower in the "push-to-pass" function, and that prices for a year-long engine lease will be capped at $690,000 if there is competition between manufacturers and $575,000 if there is a sole supplier."

Source article from July 14, 2010:

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/racing...ohn&id=5379836

Sure doesn't look like recouping investment costs is the strategy: this is a marketing exercise. Ten entrants per manufacturer gets you $7M in invoices, be generous and call it $10M if you add in rebuilds and replacement costs for crash-damaged units.

That's not going to be half the amount of the investment required for each of the three manufacturers.

[edv]

What a welcome change it would be to hear engines screaming above 15,000 rpm! And turbos to boot!

Anyone know what the restrictions are on the new engines?
Is the push-to-pass gonna be a Rev boost, turbo (psi) boost or fuel (afr) boost?

[methanolHuffer]

Having Lotus /Cosworth will be very nice.

I can't help myself into hoping a FIAT entry with rosso finish and gold painted wheels will also make its way onto the grid. But it will probably be a Dodge Ram badge or Alfa Romeo - which is absolutely nothing to sneeze at either.

And hopefully VAG will see how cool it is to get people excited again.

[NickFalzone]

Chevy, Lotus engines could infuse $30 million annually into marketing IndyCar:

http://www.ibj.com/the-score/2010/11...AMS/post/23520

[Enjun Pullr]

By supplying 25 teams with $935K engine leases (plus rebuild and crash damage replacements), Honda was invoicing somewhere around $25M.

With ten leases at the new cap of $690K, that figure drops to below $10M.

Honda had no major ongoing development costs to fund: that has certainly changed now too.

Last year funding from the Honda tree paid for two seats and subsidized five events as presenting sponsors. Berkman of HPD says they were content to operate on a break-even basis: Honda's return is in the promotional exposure.

So the money coming into the Series from the new manufacturers had better be big, and it's pretty hard to count it all as an increase. It's coming from more investors and enabling competition, which is a great change in itself.

But the cost to teams just went up, and the R&D budgets of the engine builders doesn't affect the promotional expenditures on the Series. That will take more spending from all three manufacturers: if it appears, great. Seems a bit premature to be counting it though.

The wave will be generated by other corporations joining in on the various levels of sponsorship involvement. There is a lot more selling to be done.

[Enjun Pullr]

Wow, if anyone uttered the name "Cosworth", I sure missed it.

[NickFalzone]

Press conference had Randy, Parnelli, and the Lotus president. I didn't watch the whole thing but from what I heard: Lotus is building their own engine, and Lotus is also building the custom aero pieces. I think it's great that all 3 engine manus will now also be providing their own aero kits. I'm not sure what to think about Lotus building their own engine, certainly will be the underdog..

[MDS]

Actually Honda hasn't show any interest in building an aero kit at this point, but with Lotus and Chevy doing so might prompt them to do so, especially if the only other kit manufacture would be Dallara.