Honda in Formula One
The Japanese automobile 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, producing the RA Series Hybrid power units which power Red Bull Racing and its sister team Racing Bulls.
Honda's involvement in Formula One began as a full team and engine entry in the 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 season due to difficulties selling road cars in the United States and Honda driver Jo Schlesser's fatal accident.
Honda returned in as an engine manufacturer, which started a very successful period for the company. After winning races in and, Honda won the Constructors' Championship every year between and with Williams and McLaren, and the Drivers' Championship every year from to 1991 with Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Honda withdrew at the end of after having achieved their targets and suffering the burst of the Japanese asset price bubble.
Honda returned again in, providing engines for British American Racing. BAR-Honda finished second in the Constructors' Championship in, and by the end of Honda had bought out the BAR team, which was rebranded as Honda for. 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, 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 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 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 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, with the Honda-built engines winning further titles in, and. They will make a full-scale return in with Aston Martin as their works partner, enticed by the introduction of more sustainable regulations.
As an engine manufacturer, Honda has won six World Constructors' Championships, six World Drivers' Championships and over 80 Grands Prix, ranking fifth in Formula One history. In addition to their success as an engine manufacturer, their three Grand Prix wins as a team owner make them the only Japanese or Asian team to win in Formula One.
First era (1964–1968)
Honda entered Formula One Grand Prix racing in 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. 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.File:Surtees at 1968 Dutch Grand Prix.jpg|thumb|John Surtees and Yoshio Nakamura at the 1968 Dutch Grand Prix
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, 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 season.
Second era (1983–1992)
Honda returned to Formula One in 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. 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 as Williams had an existing contract, they were supplied with the latest 1.5-litre RA167E V6 engine, while Lotus were supplied with the 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, both Lotus and McLaren used the same specification RA168E. Also, in, while McLaren had the latest RA121E V12, Tyrrell were only given the RA100E V10s that McLaren had used in. 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 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, 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 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 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 season where Briton Nigel Mansell and Rosberg won the final 3 races of the season, it was clear that Honda had the engine to beat in Formula One.
At their peak Honda engines were considered the ticket to Grand Prix glory due to their power, reliability, sophistication and winning track record. Honda's commitment to F1 was such that Nigel Mansell, who drove Honda-powered Williams cars from 1985 to 1987 recalled in a 2011 interview that Honda were making and developing 4 to 6 totally different engines in a single season. Honda won six consecutive constructors' championships as an engine manufacturer, as well as five consecutive drivers' championships, before dropping out of the sport again.
File:Honda RA168E engine rear Honda Collection Hall.jpg|thumb|left|The all-conquering Honda RA168E V6 turbo used in the McLaren MP4/4 and Lotus 100T in
Honda's supreme year in its days as an engine supplier came with McLaren in 1988. Mated to the Steve Nichols designed McLaren MP4/4 and with then dual World Champion Alain Prost and Brazilian Ayrton Senna as the drivers, the McLaren-Honda duo had an almost perfect season. Unlike most, Honda built an all new V6 turbo for the year to cope with the reduced fuel limit and turbo boost limit and it paid massive dividends. McLaren-Honda claimed 15 pole positions in the 16 races, 13 of them for Senna, and also 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 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. Prost actually scored more points than Senna over the course of the season, largely thanks to 7-second-place finishes to go with his 7 wins, but under the rules of the time only the best 11 scores counted to the championship which saw the title go to the Brazilian.
Fittingly in the last race of Formula One's original turbo era, the 1988 Australian Grand Prix, Honda-powered drivers closed out the podium with Prost defeating Senna with the Lotus of Nelson Piquet finishing an easy 3rd.
For the new 3.5 L naturally aspirated regulations for 1989, Honda debuted the new RA109E V10 in the McLaren MP4/5 and were now exclusively supplying McLaren; Lotus were forced to use Judd engines. This engine proved as dominant as the V6 turbo before it, taking 10 wins and 15 pole positions during the season and powering Prost to the 1989 Drivers' Championship. For 1990, a further developed version of the V10 and the MP4/5B powered Senna to the 1990 Drivers' Championship. For 1991, Honda developed a brand new V12, the RA121E, with which Senna ultimately won his third World Championship. 1992 saw the Adrian Newey designed Williams FW14B chassis to be superior to any other car that season, and McLaren-Honda finished 2nd in the Constructors' Championship. Honda's final win of this era came when Gerhard Berger won the 1992 Australian Grand Prix, the final race of the season. The company 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-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. Williams had 23 wins and Lotus 2 wins while McLaren gave the Japanese company 44 wins from 80 starts with the team.