Honda were the laughing stock of Formula One having joined the party to build the new 2014 V6 turbo hybrid power units which debuted in 2014. Having sold its billion dollar F1 team in 2008 to Ross Brawn for a single British pound, the Japanese manufacturer decided late in the day they would return to Formula One but this time as an engine supplier only.

With Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault year’s into their research and development programmes for the new F1 engine era, Honda initially elected to rejoin the sport for 2016. However, having revived their relationship with McLaren which had previously seen the pair enjoy the glory days I the 1980’s and 90’s, they were persuaded by the woking based F1 team to advance their project by a year.

Yet many of the talented F1 power unit engineers who had a passion for Formula One had left Honda in 2008 when they decided to bail on the sport. This meant not only was time short to design an F1 engine, but Honda needed to quickly recruit new engineers with little or no F1 experience.

 

 

 

Honda “GP2” engine late to the F1 party

The new Japanese F1 power unit had its architecture designed around the tight McLaren chassis design together with its aerodynamic requirements which was dubbed their “size zero” philosophy. The 2015 F1 season proved the McLaren-Honda packaged to be under powered with the finger of suspicion pointing at McLaren for the size specifications they had insisted upon.

Fernando Alonso famously described the power unit in the back of his McLaren saying, “It feels like GP2. Embarrassing. Very embarrassing,” to his race engineer as he was passed by the Sauber of Marcus Ericson in the Japanese Grand Prix. 

McLaren’s best finish was P5 that year in Hungary and the team finished the year in a lowly ninth place in the constructors’ championship. Yet even with a year under its belt back in F1, Honda were handicapped by a lack of experience and under the FIA’s token system they were restricted as to how much of their power unit they could redesign for 2016.

HRC replaced Yasuhisa Arai with Yusuke Hasegawa as their project leader for 2016 and made significant progress which showed in the table after the sixth round in Monaco with the team having scored 24 points, just three shy of the entire 2015 season.

McLaren ultimatum to Piastri: Improve or leave

 

 

 

Red Bull snap up Honda from McLaren

McLaren-Honda scored in thirteen different Grand Prix that year and finished sixth in the constructors’ championship with 76 points, a marked improvement on the yer previously. In September 2016 Hasegawa revealed that Honda had a separate team already working on next year’s engine, something they failed to do the previous season.

With a change in regulations, Honda redesigned the entire power unit for 2017 admitting the new architecture was somewhat a “high risk” approach. The season began predictably with several reliability problems and it was round eight in Baku by the time McLaren scored their first points. While the end of the year saw improved performances from the pair, the relationship had soured and in September it was announced they would split for the following season.

Red Bull who had also experienced a round time with their previous title winning power unit supplier Renault, snapped up the opportunity to strike a deal with Honda who became the engine supplier for Toro Rosso in 2018, with Red Bull following on a year later.

2019 was the first time since 2008 Honda had supplied multiple customers with an F1 power unit. At the season opener in Australia, Max Vertsappen claimed third place which was Honda’s first podium since returning to F1 in 2015. Max would also find the first win for the Japanese manufacturer in Austria and a spec 4 change to the power unit in Belgium, saw Honda powered drivers claim five podiums over the final seven Grand Prix weekends of the year.

Mercedes’ “fake detail” spotted in a bid to overtake Hamilton

 

 

 

Honda to leave F1 again

Max claimed his highest finish in F1 of P3 in the drivers’ championship and Red Bull were third with Toro Rosso in sixth had their best finish to a season. Honda were finally back, but it had taken five long years to be knocking on the door of the front runners.

Of course their subsequent success with Red Bull and McLaren is now a matter of history. Four driver’s titles and two manufacturer championships now make Honda the fifth most successful engine manufacturer in F1 history, yet once again the story about the Japanese involvement in F1 has seen another twist.

The next season as the new F1 power units were being discussed for 2026, Honda announced it wold withdraw once again from the sport come the end of 2021. Red Bull were once again facing life without a power unit supplier and so now bitten twice it was decided that Red Bull Powertrains would be created to take on a challenge never attempted before in F1.

A customer team building its own power unit was a gulp moment for many F1 observers, but just as when the team entered the sport in 2005, the thinking was ‘the sky id the limit.’ Of course as Honda’s final year progressed it became more and more likely that they were about to win a drivers’ title with Max Verstappen. Come the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi, Honda were the only manufacturer to have taken a title from Mercedes in the V6 turbo hybrid era.

Red Bull employee case against Horner now revived

 

 

 

Honda change their mind., but Red Bull say ‘no’

With power unit development frozen for 2022 and until the new era in 2026, Red Bull retained the services of a skeleton Honda crew to continue to build the existing power unit design for them. They did however steal a number of the best thinkers from Honda to join their Red Bull Powertrains programme which by now had recruited over 150 personnel.

Having officially left the sport for just one season, Honda called for meeting with the FIA to enquire about joining the 2026 party once again. Despite offering their services first to existing partners Red Bull, who declined, just six months later the Japanese organisation announced it would become the sole supplier of power units to Aston Martin.

Honda decided the increase in electrical power to 50% of the total output, complimented their road car manufacturing agenda in a future which would become completely electric. Yet once again Honda were behind the curve of the other power unit manufactures, including Red Bull PT, and had lost vital staff to Red Bull and other competitors.

With less than a year before the new power units begin an extended pre-season testing for 2026, Honda now admit they are up against it once again. Their new project leader now reveals, “we are aiming to submit the homologation in February next year – since we had a slightly late start, we want to push forward until the very last moment,” said Tesushi Kaduna.

Hamilton says this was his fault

 

 

 

Honda set for last minute changes to 2025 PU

“It’s difficult to say exactly what percentage of progress we have made, but I believe we have reached a considerable stage. Regarding how we handle high-speed combustion, fuel-related factors also come into play. The environment is changing drastically, and things will not work the same way as before.”

By delaying their FIA homologation (approval) until the last minute, this will allow the engineers to make changes to the internals within the housing of the power unit right up to th last minute. The trade off is the reliability testing will be marginal. Being late to the party in 2015 saw the Honda powered McLaren’s DNF due to power unit issues eleven times across the first ten Grand Prix weekends.

Honda also appear flustered not understanding exactly what progress they’ve made. Even Red Bull power trains during their bi-annual progress reports have claimed they are hitting the milestones as expected.

Whilst Aston Martin may have acquired the services of Adrian Newey, he knows all too well having suffered at the hands of Renault’s underperforming and unreliable V6 turbo in 2014/15, that no matter how good his car design is, the next few years of F1 are all about the engines.

Alleged WhatsApp chat reveals new turmoil at Alpine

 

 

 

Cadillac F1 confirmation hits the rocks again

The trials and tribulations which the Andretti/Cadillac Formula One team has endured on its way to approval to race in the sport is not yet over. Andretti were knocking at the door back in February 2022 as motor racing legend Mario Andretti revealed.

“Michael [his son] has applied to the FIA to field a new F1 team starting in 2024,” he announced in a social media post on Friday 11th. “His entry, Andretti Global, has the resources and checks every box. He is awaiting the FIA’s determination.”

The irony of the timing was that the teas had signed just twelve months earlier a new Concorde Agreement which binds the FIA, FOM and the teams and race promoters into a legal framework. Within that document, which usually runs for at least five years, was the clause allowing an eleventh and even a prospective F1 twelfth team to join F1 for an anti-dilution fee of $200m… READ MORE