Last Updated on 05/25/2023 by てんしょく飯
On 24 May, Honda held a ‘press conference on four-wheel motorsports’ at the Welcome Plaza Aoyama in Tokyo, and announced that it will enter the Formula One World Championship from 2026.
It announced that it had agreed a works contract with the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One team to supply power units based on the new regulations.
Honda’s fourth phase of F1 activity, which began in 2015 as a power unit supplier, will see the end of its partnership with McLaren and the supply of power units to Scuderia Toro Rosso (now Scuderia Alfatauri) from 2018 and Red Bull Racing from 2019. The company began supplying power units, and Max Verstappen showed off his skills by winning his first race in the fourth season at the Austrian Grand Prix in round nine.
Red Bull Honda continued to accumulate wins and podiums, but in October 2020, Honda suddenly surprised the world by announcing that its F1 activities would end in 2021. In the final year, Verstappen won the drivers’ championship after a fierce title battle with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, giving Honda its first F1 title in 30 years.
Honda ended its F1 activities with this title, but from the following year onwards, it will continue to provide power unit technology to the newly established Red Bull Powertrains through Honda Racing (HRC), which is responsible for racing activities, and will contribute to a double title win in 2022. However, Red Bull announced at the 2023 new car launch that it will work with Ford from 2026, when the new power unit regulations are introduced. This meant that Honda and HRC, which were registered as manufacturers from 2026 onwards, had to keep an eye on developments.
Then, on 24 May 2023, Honda held a press conference on its four-wheel motorsport activities attended by President Toshihiro Sanbe and HRC President Koji Watanabe, and announced that it would supply power units to the Aston Martin F1 team from the 2026 season, The team officially announced that it will return to the F1 World Championship as Aston Martin Aramco Honda, supplying power units to the Aston Martin F1 team from the 2026 season. The team will continue to be managed and run by Honda. HRC, which has been responsible for Honda’s motorsport activities since 2022, will be responsible for race entry and management.
Honda says it has decided to return to F1 because “the regulation changes in 2026 are in line with Honda’s carbon-neutral direction and have great significance for the development of future technologies to realise this direction”. Aston Martin F1 owner Laurence Stroll was a surprise attendee at the press conference and expressed his delight and anticipation.
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