Honda to fire Wirth? (2nd Update)
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| Andretti (R) shown here with his wife Jodi, is not happy that the IndyCar aero kit experiment turned out to be a complete waste of money, not increasing the fan base one iota. |
Agreeing with comments made below, IndyCar team owner Michael Andretti told Motorsports.com, "All I can say is that I've been talking about this from day one. I said, Guys, you're doing two things: You're putting a huge expense into the series, and you're messing with our product on the race track, which I think is the best product out there.'
"You can only lose in this scenario – you're not going to gain. Now we have a split field. Why? Millions and millions of dollars have been spent by manufacturers and the teams, and I don't see that it has put one more person in the stands.
"Chevy is the one that's pushing it," Andretti said. "Honda would rather spend the money on promoting the series than spend it on these kits."
It is not an option to return to the original Dallara aero kits, he said. "The Dallara was never meant to face any competition. You're not going to run it."
At this point, Andretti says he has "no idea" if the Speedway aero kit unveiled this week will be an improvement. If it isn't, it could be a very long year for Andretti Autosports and the other Honda teams.
04/21/15
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| All the Honda teams are slow and the teams are pointing to the aero kits |
UPDATE A spokesperson for Honda told AR1.com that they have heard no talk of terminating their relationship with Wirth. They did confirm that their current agreement with IndyCar is up for renewal at the end of this year and that negotiations are pretty far down the road.
They also said there is no connection between Honda being in IndyCar and F1. The money for the IndyCar program comes out of the American Honda budget and the money for F1 comes out of Japan, so there is zero chance Honda will leave IndyCar because they are now in F1. If they leave, it would be for other reasons.
As reported by AR1.com in St. Pete, Honda can use up to 3 of their 5 tokens for changes to their aero kits this year (to try and catch up to Chevy) but then they will not be able to use those tokens for 2016.
04/21/15 Rumor has it that Honda HPD is going to terminate their contracts with Wirth Research. Although the Honda IndyCar teams are down 10-20 HP to the Chevys, their real problem is said to be the aero kit Wirth designed for the Honda teams at a reported cost of $5 million. The chart of fast laps from Long Beach below show that the fastest Honda was slower than the slowest Chevy.
This is not the first time Honda HPD had trouble with a Wirth Aero Kit. They did the kit for the 2015 Honda LMP2 car in IMSA and it was so bad the teams had to revert to the 2014 bodies.
The aero kits have been a complete disaster for IndyCar. Chevy and Honda spent $5 million apiece to develop them, plus it cost the teams around $150k per car. The total is around $14 million wasted that could have been used to put all the races on network TV for the next several years (something AR1.com has insisted must be done) so the teams and series can attract new sponsors as a result of 1+ million viewers watching every race.
Instead we have $14 million spent on an idea that has ruined the racing (very little passing), i.e. damaged the product and TV ratings are worse than last year (we didn't think that was possible).
IndyCar must now react and do something to allow Honda to catch up, because their contract with IndyCar is up soon (we hear at the end of 2015 or 2016) and rumor has it they will leave the series before damaging their reputation further.
Another option is for IndyCar to remove all the aero kits and pay the teams $150K per car and give Chevy and Honda $5 million each for the failed experiment. $14 million total that should have been used to put all races on network TV.