Honda's IndyCar battle with Chevrolet for the 2025 title heats up: "We're there to fight”

Honda won the IndyCar title with Alex Palou during the 2024 IndyCar season. However, the Japanese engine manufacturer missed out on the manufacturers championship with Chevrolet winning 10 of the 17 races, as well as the Indy 500 where Josef Newgarden of Team Penske won.

Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) president David Salters recently came out and reflected on the 2024 season as he detailed the plan to battle with Chevrolet for the manufacturers title, and to provide the team with an engine capable of fighting against the Chevrolet around ovals.

“We’ve been in that position they’re (Chevrolet) now in. There’s one response which involves a lot of work of trying to get back there, so we’ve got amazing men and women working hard over the winter in this fightback, and you’ve got to just take a deep breath,” said Salters (via RACER).

“We know what our goals are, but we can’t say how it will end. But what I can tell you is, every day, we’re going to try and improve ourselves, and that’s the spirit of our men and women. We know we need to do a bit better. It was not a disastrous season – we won the drivers’ championship and all that sort of stuff – but we’re there to fight and we’ll see where we get to. I’m sure the others are doing the same,” he added.

AUTO: JUN 21 NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey - Source: Getty

The 2025 IndyCar season will be the 14th year of the open wheel racing series using the 2.2L Twin Turbocharged V6 engine since it was first introduced in 2012. Both Honda and Chevrolet have maxed out performance from the engines over the years, with only little improvements to be found in every subsequent season.

Majority of the oval races in 2024 were won by Chevrolet powered cars, who also dominated the Indy 500. On the contrary, the Honda excelled at the street tracks. The results point to Honda engines having a better low end power delivery and drivability whereas Chevrolet engines having more to give in the higher rev range.

Honda is rumored to be looking to make an exit from the series following the 2026 season but IndyCar's Managing Director of Engine Development recently suggested otherwise.

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Darren Sansum issued update on Honda’s rumored exit from IndyCar

Honda issued a statement about a potential exit from IndyCar in 2023, but since then the hybrid system has been introduced in the American open wheel racing series. IndyCar's Managing Director of Engine Development Darren Sansum detailed Honda’s role in the implementation of the hybrid technology as he issued an update of the exit rumors. He said (via Pit Pass Indy podcast):

“We've been very engaged with Honda because from a project management perspective... they led the hybrid introduction. So the work we've done with Honda this year has been very close as well as with GM (General Motors) as a partner. My engineers and their engineers have worked very, very closely. They seemed very engaged in the series right now.” (24:39 onwards)

Similarly, Honda issued an exit from F1 putting Red Bull in a position to start its own power unit department. However, as F1 introduced the roadmap for the new engines that will be introduced in 2026 which includes more emphasis on the battery power, Honda announced a partnership with Aston Martin to stay in the series.