Honda can finally breathe again after its brush with the FIA’s financial inspectors. After a tense year under scrutiny, the Japanese engine manufacturer has emerged unscathed from the 2024 budget cap review — a far cry from the bureaucratic panic of 2023.
A year ago, Honda’s relationship with Formula 1’s accounting department was as fraught as Günther Steiner’s radio messages. Today, however, the Tokyo-based engineers can return to doing what they do best: providing Red Bull with horsepower while publicly claiming to have left the sport.
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The ghosts of 2023
It’s worth remembering how this mess began. Honda formally withdrew from Formula 1 in 2021, stating that the time had come to focus on carbon neutrality and road cars. Red Bull promptly took over, branding their engines as Red Bull Powertrains. The only problem? Honda never really left. They continued to provide technical support and personnel, and according to some, they provided enough ‘advice’ to qualify as a full-time engine supplier with commitment issues.
Then came the 2023 financial audit. The FIA, ever vigilant when it comes to finances, noticed something amiss in the budget cap submissions. Rumours soon followed that both Honda and Alpine might have exceeded their budget — perhaps on something frivolous, like coffee machines or extra dyno hours for Max Verstappen’s title campaign.
The ensuing investigation was enough to make any accountant break into a cold sweat. Fortunately, the FIA later clarified that both parties had merely committed ‘procedural violations’, a phrase which, in F1 terms, means ‘we found some missing paperwork, but no one actually cheated’.
The FIA’s statement was oddly reassuring: ‘Although Alpine Racing SAS and HRC both committed a procedural violation, neither exceeded the cost cap. Both acted in good faith at all times.’ Translation: nobody’s being fined this time; please move along.
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Clean sheets and calm nerves
Fast forward to 2024, and Honda has finally passed its financial audits. The latest report from the FIA confirmed that nine out of ten teams passed the 2024 budget cap inspection and that all five engine manufacturers stayed comfortably under the financial limit. There was not even a whisper of impropriety this time.
For Honda, that’s a relief bordering on spiritual cleansing. Having spent 2023 nervously checking receipts, they can now enjoy the satisfaction of being compliant. Somewhere in Sakura, Japan, a whole department probably celebrated with green tea and spreadsheets.
Meanwhile, the FIA’s inspectors must be thrilled to have avoided another public scandal. Following the 2022 and 2023 dramas, in which Red Bull’s overspending triggered a storm of penalties, no one at Place de la Concorde wanted another fiscal fiasco. This year’s clean bill of health means that Formula 1 can now focus on what it does best — generating controversy on the track rather than in the accounting office.
The bigger picture
Honda’s successful inspection also strengthens its long-term future in F1. Though technically ‘withdrawn’, the brand has been inching back towards full participation and is preparing for its official return as Aston Martin’s engine supplier in 2026. Today’s news bolsters that reputation — it’s difficult to market reliability when your financial reports are more explosive than your power units.
It’s also a reminder that, even in the world’s most technologically advanced sport, compliance paperwork can be as dramatic as an overtake on the last lap. While Honda’s engineers may spend their days calculating combustion ratios, one misplaced decimal in an Excel file nearly landed them in hot water with the FIA.
For now, though, all is calm. The engines are legal, the accountants are happy and the FIA can relax for a few weeks before the next scandal erupts. Somewhere, a Red Bull Powertrains executive is quietly thanking the auditors, and Honda can finally relax.
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MORE F1 NEWS – Piastri’s decline: The analysis
It all looked so good just five race weekends ago for Oscar Piastri. At the Dutch Grand Prix the Australian entered the exclusive Formula One drivers’ club – there Grand Chelm – by claiming pole position, fastest lap and leading from lights out to the chequered flag.
Jim Clarke leads this iconic group of drivers with eight Grand Chelms and of the current drivers Lewis Hamilton and Max Vertsappen each have six – Max’s latest in Baku this season – Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc and now Oscar Piastri have just one.
A Grand Chelm is particularly difficult to achieve as Lando Norris found out last weekend in Mexico. Although he claimed pole position and led every lap, it was George Russell who claimed the fastest lap of the race, by a whopping 7/10ths of a second from the McLaren driver who was clearly looking after his tyres.
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Yet since Piastri’s achievement in Zandvoort, the wheels have come off his championship challenge. Then 34 points ahead of his team mate Lando Norris and with McLaren looking each week as though they would finish 1-2, the title was surely all but in the bag for the Aussie.
Then came Monza. A genius Red Bull upgrade saw Max Verstappen romp to victory in Ferrari’s back year by a whopping twenty seconds. McLaren team boss Andreas Stella was immediately concerned and when asked was the world champion back in the title fight despite his 94 point deficit, he was adamant.
“I used the capital letters already… We’re talking about Max Verstappen, we’re talking about Red Bull. We have already seen in Monza that they improved. They seem to have made an improvement with their car, because the way they won Monza was something more for what was our assessment than simply a car that adapts well at low drag.
“They were fast in the corners, medium-speed and low-speed corners, fast in the straights, and we know that Max, when he has a competitive car, can deliver strong weekends. Conversely, we also knew that… Baku for us would have been a difficult circuit,” concluded the McLaren boss...READ MORE ON THIS STORY
Craig.J. Alderson is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Craig oversees newsroom operations and coordinates editorial output across the site. With a background in online sports reporting and motorsport magazine editing, he plays a key role in maintaining consistency, speed, and accuracy in TJ13’s coverage.
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