Honda, Chevrolet give 2.4-liter IndyCar engines track debut

The Honda-powered car was driven by Chip Ganassi Racing’s six-time IndyCar champion, Scott Dixon, while Team Penske’s two-time champion Josef Newgarden drove the Chevrolet machine. Chevy driving duties are expected to be taken over by Will Power as testing continues tomorrow.

Today’s test was conducted on a 15-turn 2.6-mile version of the road course that uses the "inner loop" at Turn 5. This sends the cars around to the right, followed by a left-horseshoe before they rejoin the back straight, in order to reduce any advantage that could have been garnered by either team involved.

Neither engine utilized the Mahle-built hybrid unit which will be part of the specifications when the new 2.4-liter engines come online in 2024, but instead ran alternators from the current-spec 2.2-liter V6 twin-turbo engines, which have been used in IndyCar since 2012.

Difficult cold track conditions minimized running early on in the day, but matters improved in the afternoon.

It was a closed test, so no laptimes were revealed. GM’s IndyCar program manager Rob Buckner confined his comments to, “We were very happy with our first day on track with the new engine.

David Salters, president and technical director of HPD, was more expansive. An official statement read: “This is an important step for HPD, Honda and IndyCar as the series moves into the electrified era, and it was a successful day. But there are many more steps to take before the full, hybrid power unit debuts in 2024.

“The 2.4-liter engine is an all-new design, that has been fully developed, dyno-tested and manufactured by the great men and women at HPD. There is still a very, very long list of things to be accomplished before the power unit is tested in competition, but this is certainly a milestone for everyone at Honda and HPD.”

Despite the low temperatures, HPD stated that “Dixon and the Ganassi team completed the full list of opening-day test items prepared by HPD engineers without any issues. A second day of running is planned for tomorrow (Tuesday), with slightly warmer temperatures in the forecast for Indianapolis.”