Honda confident about new twin-turbo IndyCar engine

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With all IndyCar Series engines now required to have twin turbochargers from this year onward, one would figure that Honda, which had previously ran a single-turbo powerplant over the last two years, is at a disadvantage against Chevrolet, which has been using a twin-turbo since its return to IndyCar in 2012.

But in an interview with IndyCar.com, Honda Performance Development technical director Roger Griffiths says that the time spent with the single-turbo has given Honda a “really good insight” into how to go about developing its new twin-turbo, which has already been tested twice on the road course at Sebring and on the oval at Fontana this off-season.

Furthermore, Griffiths says that the new engine is already stacking up nicely against the 2013-spec single-turbo, which helped take Scott Dixon (pictured) to his third IndyCar championship.

“We had evolved the 2013 spec engine with a single turbo to a very high level of development so we had a very high bar that we had set for ourselves in terms of drivability and response and those kinds of things,” he said.

“We were pleasantly surprised by the rate at which we reached the same sort of level of performance with the 2014 engine given that it was all kind of new.”

Griffiths also gave credit to Simon Pagenaud from Honda-powered Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports. The French driver, who finished third in last year’s standings, took time after Thanksgiving to meet with HPD engineers and provide them with feedback.

“Our guys could come back from a test and say, ‘OK, these are the top five complaints and what needs fixed.’ But it’s our translation of what the driver is saying to the design engineers,” Griffiths explained.

“Sitting down with 10 of our young engineers, they quickly get past the shock of an IndyCar driver sitting down with them in the meeting room and it’s just another person trying to do a job. They’re hearing from the person driving the car what they want. It really helps our relationship with the drivers. Simon gave us some good pointers.”

After losing the last two IndyCar manufacturers’ championships to Chevrolet, it’s clear that Honda is doing all it can to wrest the title away from the Bowtie in 2014.

As for Chevy’s view, their program manager, Chris Berube, told IndyCar.com that while they saw advantages in both the single and twin turbo engines, they went with the latter because “[they] believed there was a better application of that.”

Now, as his company enters its third season after re-entering open-wheel competition, Berube feels that their experience with the twin-turbo will give them an early-season edge.

“I think we have a good understanding of the twin turbo application and that in itself will be an advantage initially,” he said.

IndyCar results, points after Detroit Grand Prix

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DETROIT — Alex Palou topped the results of an NTT IndyCar Series race for the second time this season, extending his championship points lead with his victory in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who also won the GMR Grand Prix (and the Indy 500 pole position) last month, holds a 51-point lead over teammate Marcus Ericsson (ninth at Detroit) through seven of 17 races this season.

Ganassi, which placed all four of its drivers in the top 10 at Detroit, has three of the top four in the championship standings with Scott Dixon ranked fourth after a fourth at Detroit.

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Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden is third in the standings after taking a 10th at Detroit. Pato O’Ward slipped to fifth in the points after crashing and finishing 26th

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:


RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 100-lap race on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile street course in downtown Detroit.

Lap leader summary

Full lap chart

Best section times

Full section data

Event summary

Pit stop summary

Here is the finishing order in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running
2. (7) Will Power, Chevrolet, 100, Running
3. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 100, Running
4. (4) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running
5. (13) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running
6. (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running
7. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running
8. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 100, Running
9. (6) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running
10. (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running
11. (24) Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running
12. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 100, Running
13. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
14. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 100, Running
15. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running
16. (18) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 100, Running
17. (25) Jack Harvey, Honda, 100, Running
18. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 100, Running
19. (23) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 100, Running
20. (19) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 97, Running
21. (22) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 97, Running
22. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 97, Running
23. (21) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Contact
24. (3) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Contact
25. (27) Graham Rahal, Honda, 50, Contact
26. (10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 41, Contact
27. (16) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 80.922 mph; Time of Race: 02:01:58.1171; Margin of victory: 1.1843 seconds; Cautions: 7 for 32 laps; Lead changes: 10 among seven drivers. Lap Leaders: Palou 1-28; Power 29-33; O’Ward 34; Palou 35-55; Power 56-64; Palou 65; Rossi 66; Newgarden 67-68; Kirkwood 69; Ericsson 70-76; Palou 77-100.


POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:

Drivers

Entrants

Engine manufacturers

Pit stop performance

Top 10 in points: Palou 273, Ericsson 222, Newgarden 203, Dixon 194, O’Ward 191, Rossi 176, McLaughlin 175, Power 172, Herta 149, Rosenqvist 148.

Rest of the standings: Grosjean 145, Kirkwood 142, Lundgaard 136, Ilott 116, VeeKay 108, Ferrucci 105, Armstrong 101, Rahal 99, Malukas 91, Daly 88, DeFrancesco 81, Castroneves 80, Harvey 78, Canapino 77, Pagenaud 72, Pedersen 61, Robb 55, Takuma Sato 37, Ed Carpenter 27, Ryan Hunter-Reay 20, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5.

Next race: IndyCar will head to Road America for the Sonsio Grand Prix, which will take place June 18 with coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.