55 Facts About Honda F1

Japanese automobile manufacturer Honda has participated in Formula One, as an engine manufacturer and team owner, for various periods since 1964.

Honda F1 returned in 1983 as an engine manufacturer, which started a very successful period for the company.

Honda F1 withdrew at the end of 1992 after having achieved their targets and suffering the burst of the Japanese asset price bubble.

Honda F1 returned again in 2000, providing engines for British American Racing.

In 2015, Honda F1 returned to the sport as a works power unit supplier to McLaren.

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Honda F1 achieved their first victory of the hybrid era at the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix, and numerous wins followed thereafter with both teams.

The programme culminated in the 2021 season, when Honda F1-powered driver Max Verstappen won the World Championship.

Honda F1 left the series as a competing manufacturer after 2021 to focus its resources on carbon neutral technologies, although it will continue to support Red Bull Powertrains until the end of 2025.

Honda F1 entered Formula One Grand Prix racing in 1964 just four years after producing their first road car.

In only their second year of competition, Honda F1 reached the coveted top step of the podium with Ginther's win in the RA272 at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix.

Honda F1 returned to the winner's circle in 1967 with the new Honda F1 RA300, driven by John Surtees.

The team's new Honda F1 RA302 appeared in only a single race at Rouen-Les-Essarts, lasting only a few laps before its fiery crash resulted in the death of driver Jo Schlesser.

The death and the want to focus on selling road cars in the United States prompted Honda F1 to withdraw from Formula One at the end of the 1968 season.

Honda F1 returned to Formula One in 1983 as an engine supplier for Spirit and stayed in the sport for a decade, at various times teaming with Williams, Lotus, McLaren and finally Tyrrell.

At their peak Honda F1 engines were considered the ticket to Grand Prix glory due to their power, reliability, sophistication and winning track record.

Honda F1 won six consecutive constructors' championships as an engine manufacturer, as well as five consecutive drivers' championships, before dropping out of the sport again.

McLaren-Honda F1 claimed 15 pole positions in the 16 races, 13 of them for Senna, and claimed 15 race wins, 8 from Senna and 7 from Prost which actually equaled the old record he jointly held with Jim Clark.

McLaren-Honda F1 scored a then record 199 points in the Constructors' Championship, a massive 134 points ahead of second placed Ferrari, while Senna and Prost were the only drivers in contention for the Drivers' Championship ultimately won by Senna.

Fittingly in the last race of Formula One's original turbo era, the 1988 Australian Grand Prix, Honda F1-powered drivers closed out the podium with Prost defeating Senna with the Lotus of Nelson Piquet finishing an easy 3rd.

For 1991, Honda F1 developed a brand new V12, the RA121E, with which Senna ultimately won his third World Championship.

Honda F1 had decided to pull out of Formula One after the 1992 season due to the burst of the Japanese asset price bubble that occurred that year.

Honda F1-powered cars had won 71 Grands Prix by the end of the 1992 season, 69 of them as an engine supplier between 1983 and 1992.

Honda F1 returned yet again in 2000, providing free engines and factory support for BAR.

In 2003, despite their better showing in the previous two seasons, Honda F1 dropped the Jordan Grand Prix partnership in order to concentrate on the BAR partnership.

Honda F1 was replaced by ex-Red Bull Racing driver Christian Klien for the 2007 season.

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Reactions to the new livery were mixed, although Honda F1 won an environmental award for their "Earth Car" campaign at the end of the year.

Honda F1 finally scored a point in the French Grand Prix, courtesy of Button's eighth-place finish.

From July 2007, recognising the aerodynamic problems within the car, Honda F1 began to recruit a new team from across the Formula 1 paddock.

Honda F1 had another disappointing year, and by mid-season they had switched development to the 2009 season, where new regulations come into play.

Honda F1 stated it would continue to provide financial support during the team's first year, and the Virgin Group who were linked to purchasing the team, would sponsor the cars throughout the season.

Honda F1 returned to Formula One as an engine supplier in 2015 for the second season of the V6 turbo-hybrid regulations, reviving their relationship with 1980s and 1990s partner McLaren that included free engines and commercial and factory support.

Reasons for the lacklustre performance included Honda F1 lacking experience and data with the new regulations, a token system limiting development, as well as fundamental issues with McLaren's "size zero" chassis concept.

Honda F1 had made significant improvements for the season, and after just the sixth race of the season, the Monaco Grand Prix, the team had scored 24 points, three points shy of the previous season's full total.

In September 2016, Hasegawa revealed that Honda F1 had a separate team already working on next year's engine.

Honda F1 confessed that the new design was "high risk" and it would take time to reach its potential, but will ultimately give higher performance.

The relationship between McLaren and Honda F1 had soured, and in September 2017 the two announced that they would split at the end of 2017.

In September 2017, it was announced that Honda F1 would be the works engine partner and supplier to Toro Rosso for the 2018 season, with previous partner McLaren switched to customer Renault.

Honda F1's 2018 power unit, the RA618H, was a more mature variant of the architecture introduced in 2017, while Toro Rosso were more relaxed on the PU dimension requirements than McLaren.

Honda F1 then focused the rest of the year on gaining experience for 2019, thus often changing engines despite receiving grid penalties.

Honda F1 entered the 2019 season powering both Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, meaning that they would be engine partner to multiple teams for the first time since 2008.

Honda F1 brought a reliability-enhancing Spec 2 upgrade for the fourth race in Azerbaijan, and just four races later in France they introduced a performance-increasing Spec 3 unit.

At the following Austrian Grand Prix, Honda F1 was able to optimise the level of engine cooling required, and Verstappen won the race to give Honda F1 their first win in the V6 turbo-hybrid era, and their first win overall since Jenson Button won the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.

At the thirteenth round in Belgium, Honda F1 introduced its Spec 4 power unit, which proved to be another step up in performance.

Grid penalties hampered their races in Belgium and Italy, but the following seven races saw Honda F1-powered drivers score five podiums, with Honda F1's performance being particularly strong at the high-altitude tracks of Mexico and Brazil due to a compact turbocharger design.

Honda F1 finished the season with the least on track failures of all four manufacturers by a noticeable margin and no retirements caused by engine failures in the entire season.

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Verstappen was again the leading Honda F1-powered driver in the championship in third, while Red Bull and AlphaTauri were second and seventh, respectively, in the constructors' standings.

Honda F1 was the only power unit manufacturer other than Mercedes to win races or pole positions during the season.

In October 2020, Honda F1 announced they would withdraw from Formula One at the end of the 2021 season, citing their need to focus resources on next-generation road vehicle technologies to make necessary strides towards carbon neutrality.

Honda F1 was still committed to winning the championship in 2021, and as a result it brought forward an all-new power unit design that was previously planned for 2022.

Honda F1 finished second in the next two races, before a win at the Monaco Grand Prix saw him take the lead of the championship.

Honda F1 retook the title lead by finishing second in Turkey as Hamilton suffered from an engine change penalty, while Perez finished third to give Honda a double podium, with both Red Bulls running a special Honda-themed livery on the replacement for the cancelled Japanese Grand Prix.

Honda F1 took pole position for the race, but lost the lead to Hamilton at the start; however, a late restart following a safety car period enabled him to overtake Hamilton on the last lap for the race win and the World Championship.

The Honda F1-designed engines supplied to both Scuderia AlphaTauri and Red Bull Racing will be branded Red Bull.

In 1998, Honda F1 was seriously considering entry in Formula One as a constructor, going as far as hiring Harvey Postlethwaite as technical director and designer and hiring engineer Kyle Petryshen from HRC to help with the design, implementation and management of the new engine in the new chassis.

At a test of this car, Postlethwaite suffered a fatal heart attack, the project was later shelved and Honda F1 decided to recommit as a full works engine supplier to BAR, starting in 2000.