The list of power unit manufacturers present in the 2026 technical cycle, made official last Friday by the FIA, answered a still pending question: Honda will be there. Entering the logic of the choices made in the last fifteen years by the executives of the Japanese company is a journey into a labyrinth of decisions that are sometimes even self-defeating and without a real logical thread linking the various steps.
The last act of the Japanese management, before the return made official last Friday, is dated 2 October 2020, when a sensational farewell was announced with a statement that took all of Formula 1 by surprise.
CEO Takahiro Hachigo motivated the choice as a step related to the transformation of the automobile industry. “Our goal is to become carbon-neutral by 2050 – declared Hachigo – and the choices we are making point to that goal”. Among these, at least officially, there was also the cancellation of the Formula 1 sports program.
All this just a few months before the start of the 2021 season, i.e. the one in which Red Bull and Max Verstappen took the drivers’ world title thanks also to the work done by Honda. However, a support that has become transparent in the media, since it was more the countdown to farewell than the technical challenge won against Mercedes that made the news. A misstep, especially considering the enormous technical and financial effort made since 2015, the year of the debut of the Japanese power unit on McLaren.
2021 Drivers’ Champion Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, celebrates at Parc Ferme with his team, including Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing and Masashi Yamamoto, General Manager, Honda Motorsport
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Before the success in the 2021 world championship, Honda went through very difficult years, with humiliating moments such as the famous “Gp2 engine” pronounced on the radio by Fernando Alonso in Suzuka.
The conclusion of the relationship with McLaren was also humiliating, switching to Renault engines ‘out of desperation’, to the point of giving up a large portion of the budget guaranteed by the Japanese manufacturer in order to change the power unit.
Better Renault customers (for a fee) than Honda officers. To stay in Formula 1, the Japanese brand clung to Sauber, then also being discharged by the Swiss team even before starting the relationship, and saving itself in extremis thanks to the agreement with AlphaTauri, the gateway to the Red Bull universe.
Circumstances in the end proved to be fortunate, but after a long and tiring journey, in Tokyo they were able to step aside on the eve of the world title, stepping out of the spotlight in one of the most exciting seasons in the entire history of Formula 1 .
“It’s the price to pay for those aiming for Full-Electric”, commented the heads of the Honda motorsport program on several occasions, but not even a year after the historic “stop” decision, the first indiscretions about it began to arrive to a possible rethink.
It seemed like an unreliable story, there was no logic that could make the rumors credible, and instead it was all true. But there’s more. After stepping aside in the seasons in which one of its engines won, Honda retraced its steps by officially announcing the return without having an agreement with a reference team in hand.
Potential livery for Red Bull-Ford
Photo by: Camille De Bastiani
In all of this in Tokyo they managed to lose the relationship with Red Bull, which is the best possible option for an engine manufacturer, given that in the meantime Christian Horner has made an agreement with Ford. THE
n this scenario there is also indirect help guaranteed to the British team which, after opening its powertrain department in Milton Keynes, had the possibility of accessing Honda know-how, a precious contribution in view of the design of its own power independent unit.
Those who closely follow the events of Honda motivate this unpredictable and without a logical thread as a consequence of the changes at the top of the company. It was Ito Takanobu who announced the program in 2013 to approve the return of the Japanese manufacturer to Formula 1, having switched to the “hybrid” challenge.
Shortly after his debut on the track with McLaren, his role was taken over by Takahiro Hachigo, and we owe the decision for 2020 to him. A year later, the CEO chair passed to Toshihiro Mibe, who wanted the return officially announced last week.
At the moment, the only certainty is that a power unit will be designed and built at the Sakura headquarters based on the 2026 regulations, with a big question mark over the team that will take it to the track. There are rumors according to which there is also a ‘full’ program on the desk of the Japanese executives, ie the purchase of one of the teams currently present in Formula 1 (Williams) to present itself with a team entirely ‘made in Honda’.
This too would be a return, which would resume the program abruptly interrupted on December 5, 2008, when then-CEO Takeo Fukui announced the immediate abandonment of all Formula 1-related activities.
Jenson Button, Brawn GP BGP001 Mercedes
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
A decision that became historic, and remembered as one of the most unfortunate in the entire history of this sport. The team principal of the Honda F1 team, Ross Brawn, did not lose heart and achieved a masterpiece of business and corporate management, taking over the team for 1 pound and also securing substantial financial support from Honda itself to carry on the team, renamed Brawn GP. At the end of the year Jenson Button and Brawn GP were world champions with the Mercedes engine, and Brawn sold the team to the star for 100 million pounds…
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