The Japanese automotive manufacturer Honda has participated in Formula One, as an engine manufacturer and team owner, for various periods since 1964. They have been active as engine manufacturers since 2015, producing the RA Series Hybrid power units which currently powers Aston Martin.
Contents
History
Honda's involvement in Formula One began as a full team and engine entry in the 1964 season, and in 1965 they achieved their first victory at the Mexican Grand Prix. After further success with John Surtees, Honda withdrew at the end of the 1968 season due to difficulties selling road cars in the United States and Honda driver Jo Schlesser's fatal accident.
Honda returned in 1983 as an engine manufacturer, which started a very successful period for the company. After winning races in 1984 and 1985, Honda won the Constructors' Championship every year between 1986 and 1991 with Williams and McLaren, and the Drivers' Championship every year from 1987 to 1991 with Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Honda withdrew at the end of 1992 after having achieved their targets and suffering the burst of the Japanese asset price bubble.
Honda returned again in 2000, providing engines for British American Racing (BAR). BAR-Honda finished second in the Constructors' Championship in 2004, and by the end of 2005 Honda had bought out the BAR team, which was rebranded as Honda for 2006. After winning in 2006 with Jenson Button at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Honda announced in December 2008 that they would be exiting Formula One with immediate effect due to the 2008 financial crisis, following limited success across 2007 and 2008.
In 2015, Honda returned to the sport as a works power unit supplier to McLaren, providing their RA Series Hybrid engines to the team. The first iterations of the Honda power units proved to be uncompetitive, and McLaren and Honda split after three years. Toro Rosso agreed to use Honda engines for the 2018 season as a works outfit, and after Honda showed fast development with the engines, Red Bull Racing agreed to also take on Honda engines for the 2019 season. Honda 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-powered driver Max Verstappen won the World Championship. The company officially withdrew from the series after 2021 to focus its resources on carbon neutral technologies, although an arrangement was made for them to continue supplying the Red Bull teams until the end of 2025, with the Honda-built engines winning further titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024. They will make a full-scale return in 2026 with Aston Martin as their works partner, enticed by the introduction of more sustainable regulations.
First era (1964–1968)
Honda entered Formula One Grand Prix racing in 1964 just four years after producing their first road car. They began development of the RA271 in 1962 and startled the European-dominated Formula One garages with their all-Japanese factory team (except for American drivers Ronnie Bucknum and Richie Ginther). For the RA271, Honda built their own engine and chassis, something only Ferrari and BRM – of the other teams still running in 1962 – had previously done.
In only their second year of competition, Honda reached the top step of the podium with Ginther's win in the RA272 at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. For the new 3.0 L rules from 1966, Honda introduced the Honda RA273. Although the RA273's engine was a well-designed, 360 hp (265 kW) V12, the car was let down by a relatively heavy and unwieldy in-house chassis. Honda returned to the winner's circle in 1967 with the new Honda RA300, driven by John Surtees. This won the 1967 Italian Grand Prix in only its first Formula One race. The RA300 chassis was partly designed by Lola in the UK, and this resulted in the car being nicknamed the Hondola by the motoring press. The team finished fourth in the constructors' championship, despite Surtees being their only driver during the season, while Surtees finished fourth in the drivers' championship.
The following year's Honda RA301 had many reliability problems, but finished on the podium twice and scored a pole position. The team's new Honda 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 to withdraw from Formula One at the end of the 1968 season.
Second era (1983–1992)
Honda 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 (1983–87), Lotus (1987–88), McLaren (1988–92) and finally Tyrrell (1991). Though they often supplied their engines to more than one team per season, Honda did not always supply the same specification engines to different teams in the same season. For example, in 1987 as Williams had an existing contract, they were supplied with the latest 1.5-litre RA167E V6 engine, while Lotus were supplied with the 1986 RA166E engine which had to be adapted to a lower fuel limit and turbo boost restriction, thus limiting its effectiveness, though for the last year of the original turbo era in 1988, both Lotus and McLaren used the same specification RA168E. Also, in 1991, while McLaren had the latest RA121E V12, Tyrrell were only given the RA100E V10s that McLaren had used in 1990. McLaren had direct Honda factory support, with engines coming straight from the Japanese company's racing division in Japan; while Tyrrell had to make do with the previous RA100E model (renamed to RA101E) that were tuned by private Honda tuner Mugen; they had little to no direct factory support.
Both Lotus in 1987–88 and Tyrrell in 1991 obtained use of the Honda engines largely due to their agreeing to sign former Honda test driver Satoru Nakajima as one of their team drivers for those seasons.
As an engine supplier, Honda made its World Championship debut with Spirit's Swedish driver Stefan Johansson at the 1983 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Johansson qualified in an encouraging 14th place (although some 4.5 seconds slower than pole), though he would retire after just 5 laps with fuel problems. Johansson had given the Honda its on track debut earlier in the year at the non-championship 1983 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch (the last non-championship race in F1 history) where despite unreliability, the 1.5-litre turbocharged V6 engine dubbed the RA163E had impressed with its speed. By the final race of the 1983 season in South Africa, Honda had begun its association with Williams where reigning (and outgoing) World Champion Keke Rosberg served notice that the Honda was on the pace by qualifying 6th, only 7/10s slower than the Ferrari of pole winner Patrick Tambay.
Rosberg would give Honda its first win as an engine supplier when he outlasted the field to win the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix and by the end of the 1985 season where Briton Nigel Mansell and Rosberg won the final 3 races of the season (Rosberg had already won that year's Detroit Grand Prix), it was clear that Honda had the engine to beat in Formula One.
Third era (2000–2008)
Return as a works engine manufacturer (2000–2005)
Honda returned yet again in 2000, providing free engines and factory support for BAR. They also supplied free factory engines to Jordan Grand Prix for 2001 and 2002 seasons. This would lead to a battle for the right to use the Honda engines in the long term. In 2003, despite their better showing in the previous two seasons, Honda dropped the Jordan Grand Prix partnership in order to concentrate on the BAR partnership. In mid-November 2004 Honda was going to purchase 45% of the BAR team from British American Tobacco (BAT, the founder and owner of BAR) but had to be delayed to January 2005 due to issues with minor shareholders, following BAR's best season, when they were able to achieve second place in the 2004 Constructors' Championship, only behind the dominant World Champions Michael Schumacher and Ferrari.
Full team ownership (2006–2008)
In September 2005 Honda purchased the remaining 55% share of BAR to become the sole owner. BAT continued as title sponsor with the Lucky Strike brand in 2006, but withdrew from Formula 1 for 2007 due to prohibition of tobacco advertising. It was decided that the team, holding a Japanese racing licence, would race under the name Honda Racing F1 Team from 2006.
Honda's first season as a team since 1968 started fairly well, with Jenson Button finishing fourth at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix and scoring a podium at the second round in Malaysia. At the next race in Australia, Button scored a pole position. The results started to be inconsistent after that and the main reason for the lack of form was reliability, with the team dropping out of contention for race victories many times. Pit-stop problems also hampered the team early on, in one case effectively ruining Jenson Button's chances for a good result and possible podium at Imola. In light of this form, it was announced that Geoff Willis would be adopting a factory-based role to concentrate on aerodynamics. Following the appointment of Senior Technical Director Shuhei Nakamoto over Willis' head and Mariano Alperin-Bruvera as Chief Aerodynamicist Willis' position appeared difficult, and reports indicated that he left the team.
At the Hungaroring, fortunes changed. Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button qualified third and fourth, though Button had to drop ten places, following an engine change. In an incident-packed race, Button came from fourteenth on the grid to win his first race, with Barrichello finishing fourth. After this win, the team's performance went up noticeably, displaying consistency arguably better than championship leaders Ferrari and Renault. Since Hungary, Button scored more points than any other driver in the last six races of the season. Barrichello did not have the best season for the team, because he had to get used to the new brakes and traction control, after moving from a six-year stint at Ferrari, though he was a regular points scorer. Both drivers earned points finishes in almost all the remaining races, with the season ending on a high note with Button's 3rd-place finish in Brazil – less than a second behind 2nd place Fernando Alonso – after having to start from 14th on the grid. The team finished fourth in the constructors' championship with 86 points.
On 15 November 2006, it was announced that long-time BAR Honda and Honda test driver Anthony Davidson would be heading to Super Aguri F1 to race alongside Takuma Sato. He was replaced by ex-Red Bull Racing driver Christian Klien for the 2007 season.
Fourth era (2015–2021)
Return as a power unit supplier to McLaren (2015–2017)
On 7 October 2010, AutoWeek reported that then-CEO Takanobu Ito initiated Honda's initial ambitions of Formula One return plan as a full-scale engine manufacturer competitor was eyed as a part of Honda's ambitions of the future Formula One all-new engine regulations which initially planned for 2013 but later postponed to 2014 season to foster the green image and eco-friendly philosophy. Later on 20 November 2011 Motorsport.com reported that Honda's further plan of Formula One return was revealed, with McLaren was hinted as their main partnership target but on 23 November 2011 Jonathan Neale denied the reports of future reunion plan. On 26 February 2013, GrandPrix.com reported that Honda claimed that the future Formula One engine project development work was started as a part of Honda's "Green Image" goals with former Ferrari head of engine department Gilles Simon signed as an engine consultant. Later on 16 May 2013 it was announced that Honda 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 also commercial, factory support and official second team vehicles. Honda's power unit was designed around McLaren's very tight chassis design and aerodynamic requirements, which they had dubbed their "size zero" philosophy. Over the 2015 season, the McLaren-Honda package proved to be significantly underpowered and unreliable, and the team finished ninth in the constructors' championship with fifth place in Hungary as their best result. Reasons for the lacklustre performance included Honda 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. McLaren had also persuaded Honda to return a year earlier than initially planned.
For the 2016 season, Yusuke Hasegawa replaced Yasuhisa Arai as Honda's project leader. Honda 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. The team scored points in 13 different races during the season and recorded fastest lap at the Italian Grand Prix, finishing in sixth place in the final constructors' standings with 76 points, a marked improvement from the year before. In September 2016, Hasegawa revealed that Honda had a separate team already working on next year's engine.
For the 2017 season, Honda redesigned the entire power unit, with the major change being the positioning of the turbo, compressor and MGU-H. This design split the turbo from the compressor and had them overhanging each side of the block with the MGU-H in the centre of the V all connected via a shaft. Honda confessed that the new design was "high risk" and it would take time to reach its potential, but will ultimately give higher performance. The season started with several reliability issues, and it took until the eighth round in Azerbaijan to score points. However, the team regularly finished in the points in the latter part of the season, scoring points in six of the last ten races, to finish ninth in the constructors' championship. The relationship between McLaren and Honda had soured, and in September 2017 the two announced that they would split at the end of 2017.
Partnership with Red Bull-owned teams (2018–2021)
In September 2017, it was announced that Honda would be the works engine partner to Toro Rosso for the 2018 season, with previous partner McLaren switching to customer Renault units. From 2018 onwards, Honda split the responsibilities of project leader in two, with Toyoharu Tanabe taking charge of trackside operations and Yasuaki Asaki leading development in Japan. In addition, Honda would also provide full trackside factory support, brand endorsements, free engines and official vehicles to Scuderia Toro Rosso. Honda'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. The power unit proved to be significantly more reliable compared to the previous year, with only three engine-related retirements throughout the season. In just the second race of the season in Bahrain, the team finished in fourth place with Pierre Gasly, Honda's best result since returning to the sport in 2015. At the seventh round in Canada, Honda debuted their upgraded Spec 2 unit, and after assessing the competitiveness of Honda compared to Renault, senior team Red Bull Racing announced they would switch to full-works Honda from 2019 onwards. Honda then focused the rest of the year on gaining experience for 2019, thus often changing engines despite receiving grid penalties. The introduction of the Spec 3 power unit brought notable performance improvements, yielding sixth and seventh places in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. The team finished the season ninth in the constructors' standings with eight points finishes.
Honda 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 and also for the third time since 2017 that two Red Bull-owned teams supplied by same engine manufacturer again but this time with Honda. Honda and Red Bull aimed to work closely together to allow for perfect synergy between chassis and power unit, which would provide a significant packaging advantage. 2019 was targeted as a building year for World Championship contention in future seasons.
At the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Red Bull-Honda driver Max Verstappen took third place, Honda's first podium since returning to Formula One in 2015 and their first overall since 2008, as well as Red Bull's best season-opening result in the turbo-hybrid era. The following seven rounds saw Verstappen finish six times in the top-four, including a podium in Spain. Honda 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 was able to optimise the level of engine cooling required, and Verstappen won the race to give Honda their first win in the V6 turbo-hybrid era, and their first win overall since Jenson Button won the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. Another win followed two races later in the wet German Grand Prix, where Verstappen won and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat came third to make it a double podium for Honda. At the next race, the Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen took his first ever pole position and Honda's first since the 2006 Australian Grand Prix.
Fifth era (2026 onwards)
In December 2022, Honda, under its subsidiary Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), officially registered its interest with the FIA to be a power unit manufacturer when the new regulations will be introduced in 2026.
In May 2023, Honda confirmed its entry for 2026 and announced it would supply its hybrid power units to Aston Martin as a works team after eight years of partnership with Red Bull-owned teams. The increased role of the electric element of the power units, which will provide 50% of the total power output, and the introduction of 100% sustainable fuels played a key role in enticing the company to make a full-scale return for the new regulations. Honda previously collaborated with the Silverstone-based Formula One team in 2001 and 2002 when it was known as Jordan Grand Prix, and the team also ran Mugen-Honda engines between 1998 and 2000.
Other involvement
Mugen era and aborted 1999 Formula One project
From 1993 to 1998, Honda's only presence in Formula One was as an engine supplier through its closely related but independent partner, Mugen Motorsports, who supplied engines to Footwork, Lotus, Ligier, Prost and Jordan. Mugen-powered cars had won four Grands Prix by the end of the 1999 season. Although the engines were initially independently funded, the engines were serviced by Honda engineers, and by 1998 the engines themselves were effectively Honda works engines. In 1998, Honda 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. A test car, RA099, designed by Postlethwaite and built by Dallara, was made and tested during 1999, driven by Jos Verstappen. Although the engines were still Mugen-badged, the team impressed at test sessions, beating some more experienced and better financed teams, even if they were mostly in the midfield. At a test of this car, Postlethwaite suffered a fatal heart attack, the project was later shelved and Honda decided to recommit as a full works engine supplier to BAR, starting in 2000.
During this period, Honda engineers also developed several Formula One cars as a side, unofficial project, the Honda RC100/RC-F1 series, initially using V12 engines as used on the McLarens, before switching to Mugen-built V10 engine in the project's final evolution.
Continued power unit supply to Red Bull after formal withdrawal (2022–2025)
Following their decision to withdraw from Formula One at the end of 2021, Honda agreed to a deal with Red Bull to continue constructing, servicing, and supplying Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri with power units from its facility in Sakura. The deal was made possible by a power unit development freeze introduced for 2022, which allowed Honda to scale back its F1 operations and redirect its resources to other projects while still supporting Red Bull as Honda RBPT (Honda Red Bull Powertrains). Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) assumed responsibility for the programme, in a restructuring that also left it in control of Honda's other four-wheeled motorsports projects. The agreement initially only covered the 2022 season, after which the new Red Bull Powertrains company would assume responsibility for the manufacture and supply of the Honda-designed engines, but was later extended to the end of the 2025 season. Honda therefore retained all the rights to their power units, with Red Bull mostly just providing financial support for their operation.
During the 2022 season, the Honda-designed and built engines were badged as Red Bull Powertrains (RBPT) units, reflecting Honda's official withdrawal from Formula One. Honda's branding presence on the liveries and uniforms of the two teams was also reduced, and the Honda logos on the cars' liveries and drivers' suits were replaced by that of HRC. At the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix – a race for which Honda was the title sponsor – Honda and Red Bull announced a strengthening of their partnership, with Honda branding returning to both Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri's liveries for the remainder of the season and beyond. Honda returned as a named power unit supplier for the 2023 season, supplying power units badged as Honda RBPT.
Honda's power unit design for the 2022–2025 period was strong in both performance and reliability. Multiple reports stated that it was, on average, around half a second faster per lap than the Renault power unit that Red Bull would otherwise have had to use. It contributed to Red Bull often having the best straight line performance in the field. In 2022, Verstappen scored a record 15 of Red Bull's 17 wins during the season and clinched his second consecutive title with a win in Honda's home race in Japan, while the team secured the constructors' title at the following United States Grand Prix. At the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, Red Bull won their 12th consecutive race to break McLaren's record set in the 1988 season. This meant that Honda broke its own record in the process as the 1988 McLaren MP4/4 was powered by Honda's RA168E.
Statistics
Formula One chassis results
Winning percentage: 3.4%
(italics indicates non-works entries; bold indicates championships won)
Formula One engine results
Note: This table only includes engines/power units which were badged as "Honda":
* Max Verstappen won the 2022 Drivers' Championship with an RBPT-badged Honda power unit
* Max Verstappen won the 2023 and 2024 Drivers' Championship with a Honda RBPT power unit
Note: This table only includes engines/power units which were badged as "Honda":
* Red Bull Racing-RBPT won the 2022 Constructors' Championship with a rebadged Honda power unit
* Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT won the 2023 Constructors' Championship with a Honda RBPT power unit
Note: This table only includes engines/power units which were badged as "Honda"; it does not include the 1992–2000 Mugen Honda engines, the 2022 RBPT power units (which were rebadged Hondas) or the 2023–2025 Honda RBPT power units.