With Indy just a few weeks away, and without an engine contract currently in place, Herta’s to-do list has one big item to cross off.

“Obviously the next step is to secure a new engine partner,” he said. “That’s a process that’s currently ongoing. It’s good to know we have the support of INDYCAR in the process; I wasn’t really sure if that was going to be the case or not, but INDYCAR seems supportive of what we’re doing. We’re just trying to re-gear and as I call it, ‘start our season at Indianapolis.’”

BHA has been linked with a return to Honda after working closely with the manufacturer during its time as the official test team for the 2012 Indy car, and although Herta wouldn’t confirm which powerplant is likely to end up powering Alex Tagliani’s Dallara DW12, he says that a replacement for Lotus could be just around the corner.

“We’re trying to get it wrapped up this week,” he confirmed. “I don’t know if that means we’ll announce anything this week because there’s a lot of work to be done. And changing an engine isn’t as easy as just taking one out and putting a different one in. You have a lot of parts and pieces to replace and lay out, too. Hopefully this will give us some time to do all of that properly and come back strong and ready for the first practice at Indy.”

Although there’s plenty of work to be done at BHA’s shop in Indianapolis, and despite Herta’s choice not to enter the race, two members of the team will make the 12-hour trek to Sao Paulo this weekend.

“Alex and I will still be going down to Brazil,” Herta remarked. “Barracuda Networks are a worldwide company, and we planned to host a number of corporate guests this weekend, so we’ll be there entertaining and then come back and get ready to try and win the Indy 500 again.”

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett on Twitter.