Honda unlikely to seek dispensation for improvements

Honda are unlikely to seek dispensation to make major improvements to close the gap to Chevrolet.

Under IndyCar rule 9.3, aero kit manufacturers can seek dispensation from the series to make drastic changes to their bodywork if they feel they are at a competitive disadvantage.

However, despite utilising the regulation last year, the Japanese marque won't be doing the same once this season concludes.

"Our preference would be to not to ask for relief under Rule 9.3," Honda Performance Development president Art St Cyr said. "As we learned last year the implementation of 9.3 and the associated confirmation testing slows down aero testing as our resources are utilized to justify and document changes. Our preference would be to allow for open development to close the gap."

While Honda has been closer to Chevrolet on ovals, on road and street courses they are still clearly behind. Honda's only win in 2016 came at the Indianapolis 500 where Alexander Rossi prevailed after a fuel gamble.

The next round on the IndyCar calendar is the unique 2.5 mile Pocono Raceway and St Cyr is confident the Honda equipped teams will run well at the superspeedway.

"Based on our performance at the only superspeedway that we've run at this year, we think we're in good basic shape," he said. "But we don't take anything for granted. The competition is very strong, [Chevrolet] has very experienced drivers, and they've been able to do testing on the tracks that we have ahead of us, but we are cautiously optimistic about how we'll perform at Pocono."