Bowtie filed official protest of Honda’s new turbo housing last week
The battle between Chevrolet and Honda over the latter’s new updates on its single turbocharger will be decided in a protest hearing on Thursday in Indianapolis.
As you’ll recall, Honda attempted to introduce a new housing cover (“a 0.74 A/R compressor cover” according to the series) on its turbos before the start of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend — only to be forced by INDYCAR to revert back to the original configuration. But on April 18, the series decided to permit the new housing for this weekend’s Sao Paulo Indy 300 in Brazil.
That did not sit well with the Bowtie forces (especially the team owner of its flagship squad, Roger Penske), which responded with an official protest of the series’ decision.
INDYCAR president of competition/chief race steward Beaux Barfield has elected to go with a three-person panel for the hearing: One person selected by Honda, one person selected by Chevrolet/General Motors, and one person that’s agreed upon by both manufacturers.
Lotus, who along with Chevrolet uses twin turbochargers on their engines, has also been invited to participate in the hearing as well.
