INDYCAR: Honda takes lead on revised aero kit

Honda's heavily revised aero kit made its public debut today in Phoenix featuring updates designed by the in-house team at Honda Performance Development. The brand's 2016 road course/short oval kit is a significant departure from the complex kit Wirth Research penned for HPD in 2015, and with HPD taking the lead on the project, its fortunes will be tied directly to the quality of the work produced by Honda employees.

"The management of the development of the aero kit is completely being done by HPD," HPD vice president Steve Eriksen told RACER. "That is our project and our responsibility. So the management of the decisions and direction and the expenditures, testing, that is HPD's.

"We have had the fortunate ability this year to be able to work with a group of aerodynamicists from [Honda R&D department] HGT. They have provided some assistance as well. But I would say the vast majority of what you are seeing is internal Honda created components. We have had [the HGT group] from Honda's previous era of Formula 1 that were able to help us a bit. But generally our own [HPD] guys did the bulk of the work.

IndyCar rival Chevrolet hired a number of aerodynamic experts from a variety of racing disciplines to aid in the creation of its championship-winning aero kit. With its new and full reliance on developing Honda's aero kit, Eriksen says a similar process has taken place at HPD, albeit using personnel sources from within the company.

"We even brought on some Honda associates from other Honda companies on to the program when we were in the crunch of creating drawings, finalizing the drawings or releasing the drawings," he added. "So it was really a Honda team effort – if you will, Team Honda. We had some guys from R&D in Ohio that came across and actually worked in our facility for a while, get those drawings complete and get those out to the vendors and get parts made. It's a multi-Honda activity, but the vast majority of the work was HPD's."

Wirth manufactured and shipped some of Honda's 2015 aero kit from its base in England, but with the project's recent shift to HPD, aero kit production has been moved to American suppliers.

"We specifically targeted using U.S. vendors for the sake of convenience, and not have to do with customs, and have the ability to be able to service our customers better," Eriksen said. "We took the best vendors from last year's experience and carried them through to this year. I think they have done a really phenomenal job. We've got some very high-quality components going on the aero kit."

Although HPD's road course/short oval kit has undergone a sizeable transformation, its Wirth-led superspeedway kit will look familiar once the series arrives at Indianapolis in May, and will include revisions from both parties.

"The superspeedway bodywork is last year's bodywork, which was Wirth's design, so there has been some involvement from Wirth on that configuration because the baseline was what they developed," Eriksen explained. "It has been a collaborative activity on all fronts, but there's a much, much higher level of involvement of HPD folks in this go-around than in the previous one."