Honda management has decided to return to Formula 1, as the financial burden associated with the development of a new generation of power plants will be significantly less.
It was this, as well as the course towards achieving carbon neutrality, that became the main factors influencing the change in strategy of the Japanese company. From 2026, it will supply engines to the Aston Martin team, which will become its exclusive partner.
“The main key factor that influenced us this time was the focus of the new regulations in 2026, i.e. commitment to achieving carbon neutrality,” said Koiji Watanabe, president of Honda Racing Corporation. – And this direction coincides with the course our companies are taking, aimed at the future. This is the deciding factor.
At the moment, electricity accounts for 20% or even less of what an internal combustion engine produces, but the new regulations should increase this share to 50% or more, which means we are moving towards further electrification.
I believe that in the future these electric technologies will be useful to us in the mass production of cars. The 2026 regulation also obliges us to fully switch to carbon neutral fuels, and this will also require efforts to adapt this new fuel to the internal combustion engine. We also need to think about how to achieve the optimum level of efficiency to achieve an increase in speeds. And all this coincides with Honda’s course.
Toshihiro Mibe, CEO of Honda, spoke in more detail about the economic component of the new project: “Of course, investments will be required, but at the same time there is a budget limit, so we allocate the maximum possible funding. However, the investment volume will not be unlimited, as before. It is very difficult to distinguish which specific investments will be directed to certain purposes, but we have determined their total volume.
According to observers, one of the real reasons why Honda made the decision to return to Formula 1 was that as soon as it announced the end of the program in the World Championship, cars with their power plants began to win races more often. Max Verstappen already has two championship titles, Red Bull Racing won the Constructors’ Championship last year and everything is going to be the strongest in 2023.
But to achieve such results, the Japanese company had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and it is clear that this could not go on forever. But according to Meebe, the new project will require much more modest money. This is mainly due to tight budgets, but he also made it clear that Aston Martin made Honda “a tempting offer as the team is determined to succeed at all costs.”
“The new project will not have a negative impact on other parts of our company,” he stressed. – The main factor will be effectiveness: we will no longer follow the path of trial and error, when you have to experiment a lot.
That’s how we’ve acted in the past, but this time we want to get higher returns and try to keep costs as low as possible, but at the same time create a power plant that can win. As far as further modernization is concerned, I think we can bear the cost of the racing program. I can’t say more about it in detail, but the cost level will be much lower than in the past.”
Judging by the amount of investment that the Aston Martin project in Formula 1 has already required, and the resources available to team partners, including the Saudi oil and gas company Aramco, it can be assumed that the Japanese company’s costs will be offset to a certain degree.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
