Honda management comes to Austria – for what?

Representatives from Honda’s senior management will visit the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix, which will obviously give rise to new rumors of the Japanese company’s possible return to Formula 1.

Late last year, Honda officially ended its World Championship program, with Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri still using Japanese powertrains under the Red Bull Powertrains (RBPT) brand. The Japanese side is also still involved in the production and maintenance of engines and these agreements will run until 2025, after which Red Bull will start producing engines itself, most likely in collaboration with Porsche.

In Formula 1, they feel that Honda has already regretted the decision to leave the championship, as the Red Bull and AlphaTauri cars no longer have clearly visible logos of the Japanese company, only the mention of the Honda Racing Corporation (HRC ) remains, it generally goes unnoticed and does not attract particular attention.

There is talk that the Japanese may return in the future, probably when the championship moves to a new generation of engines, and the planned visit of a representative delegation from Honda and HRC to the Austrian Grand Prix is ​​of course the basis for such rumours.

The delegation includes Toshihiro Mibe, CEO of the company, Vice President Seiji Kuraishi, as well as Koiji Watanabe, President of HRC, and Yasuaki Asaki, head of the company’s racing division and head of its research division, who is also involved in Formula 1. They all come at the invitation of Red Bull.

Since the regulations for the new generation of power plants are expected to be approved tomorrow at the Formula 1 committee meeting, it is possible that the Honda delegation will also participate.

However, The Race’s pundits believe this is still nothing more than a courtesy call designed to demonstrate Red Bull’s continued support, and most likely no negotiations are planned over Honda’s possible return to Formula 1 this weekend. .

Although it is likely that the two companies can agree on new terms of cooperation for 2023 to give Honda more focus as an engine supplier to a team well on its way to winning the title for the second season in a row. In 2022, another win in the Constructors’ Championship may be added.

There is no reason to believe that Honda has decided to return, although Formula 1 will be very happy about this, but there are already rumors that if the Japanese company returns to the championship in the future, not only as engine supplier, but will create its own factory team.

This is of course an extremely complex and expensive project, but firstly, Honda already has experience in Formula 1 and they have learned how to build excellent engines; secondly, one of the scenarios could be the takeover of Red Bull’s AlphaTauri team, although it is too early to talk seriously about this.

And the courtesy visit of the Honda delegation to Austria is no reason to make far-reaching assumptions.