Honda Racing F1 Team was a
Formula One (F1) team run by Japanese
car
manufacturer Honda, from 1964 to 1968 and from
2006 to 2008. Honda's involvement in F1 began with the
1964 season; their
withdrawal in 1968 was precipitated by the death of Honda driver
Jo Schlesser during the
1968 French Grand Prix. They returned
in
1983 as an engine
supplier, a role that ended in 1992. They returned again in
2000, providing engines for
British American Racing
(BAR), and by the end of 2005 BAR had been bought out and Honda
Racing was re-established.
It was announced on December 5, 2008 that Honda would be exiting
Formula One with immediate effect due to the
current economic
crisis and were looking to sell the team.
On February 27 2009 it
was announced that the team had been secured with a management
buy-out led by team principal Ross Brawn,
and raced successfully as Brawn GP
in 2009
before being bought by Mercedes and turned to Mercedes Grand Prix
for the 2010 onward.
History
Early success
Honda entered
Formula One Grand Prix
racing in
1964, 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 (except for American
drivers
Ronnie Bucknum and
Richie Ginther). More startling was the fact
that Honda built their own engine and chassis, something only
Ferrari and
BRM - of the other teams still running
in 1962 - had previously done.
In only their second year of competition, Honda reached the coveted
top step of the podium with Ginther's win in the
RA272 at the
1965 Mexican Grand Prix. For the new
3.0L rules from 1966, Honda introduced the
Honda RA273. Although the RA273's engine was a
well-designed, ~360bhp
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 F1 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. This was the last
competitive car that Honda produced for F1 in the 1960s.
Withdrawal after death of Schlesser
The following year's
Honda RA301 only
reached the podium twice. 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 prompted
Honda to withdraw from F1 at the end of the
1968 Formula One season.
Honda as an engine supplier, 1983-1992
Honda
returned to Formula One in 1983 as an engine supplier for
Spirit and stayed in the sport
for a decade, at various times teaming with Lotus, McLaren
, Tyrrell and Williams. Honda engines were considered
the ticket to Grand Prix glory due to their power, reliability, and
winning track record. Honda supplied its engines to six
constructor
champions, as well as five driver championships (3 by
Senna, 1 by
Piquet, and another by
Prost), before dropping out of the sport again.
Honda-powered cars had won 71 Grands Prix, by the end of the 1992
season.
Aborted F1 project (Honda Racing Developments), 1999
From 1993 to 1998, Honda's only presence in F1 was as an engine
supplier through its parent company
Mugen Motorsports, who supplied engines to
Footwork,
Lotus,
Ligier,
Prost and
Jordan. Mugen-powered cars had won 4
Grands Prix by the end of the 1999 season. In 1998, Honda was
seriously considering entry in Formula One as a constructor, going
as far as producing an engine and hiring
Harvey Postlethwaite as technical
director and designer. A test car,
RA099, designed by Postlethwaite and built by
Dallara, was made and tested during 1999,
driven by
Jos Verstappen. The team
impressed at test sessions, beating some more experienced and
better financed teams, even if they were mostly in the midfield. At
a test of this car, Postlethwaite suffered a fatal heart attack,
the project was later shelved and Honda decided to merely recommit
as a full works engine supplier to BAR, starting in 2000.
Partnership with British American Racing
Honda returned yet again in
2000, providing engines for
BAR. They also supplied engines to
Jordan Grand Prix for
2001 and
2002. This would lead to a battle
for the right to use the Honda engines in the long term. In
2003, despite their better
showing in the previous 2 seasons, Honda dropped
Jordan Grand Prix. In mid-November 2004
Honda purchased 45% of the BAR team from
British American Tobacco (BAT, the
founder and owner of BAR) following BAR's best season, when they
were able to achieve second place in the
2004 Formula One season, a year
dominated by
Michael Schumacher
and
Ferrari.
Return
In September 2005 Honda purchased the remaining 55% share of BAR to
become the sole owner. BAT continued as title sponsor with the
Lucky Strike brand in 2006, but
withdrew from Formula 1 for 2007. It was decided that the team
would race under the name Honda Racing F1 Team from 2006.
2006
Despite showing promise pre-season (with the RA106 being considered
one of the most powerful of the new
V8 engines),
Honda demonstrated fairly mediocre performance at the start of the
2006 season despite a pole position at
Australia. Prior to their win at
Hungary, they had only
accumulated a single podium finish, a third place from
Jenson Button at
Malaysia. The main reason for lack
of form (the team was expecting to challenge for the championship)
was down to reliability, with the team dropping out of contention
for race victories many times. Pit-stop problems also hampered the
team early on, in one case effectively ruining Jenson Button's
chances for a good result and possible podium at
Imola.
Rubens Barrichello did not have a good
season for the team, down to the fact that he had to get used to
the new
brakes and
traction control, after moving from
a very successful six year stint at Ferrari. Nevertheless Rubens
had out-qualified his team-mate in two of the the final four
races.
Honda had a particularly poor showing at the British Grand Prix in
2006. In particular, Jenson Button was eliminated after the first
portion of qualifying after the team failed to get him out for a
second run. This resulted in his qualifying 19th. He then retired
with an oil leak. In light of this poor form, it was announced that
Geoff Willis would be adopting a
factory-based role to concentrate on aerodynamics. Following the
appointment of Senior Technical Director
Shuhei Nakamoto over Willis' head and
Mariano Alperin-Bruvera as Chief Aerodynamicist Willis' position
appeared difficult, and reports indicated that he left the team.
At the
Hungaroring
, fortunes changed. Barrichello and Button
qualified third and fourth, though Button had to drop ten places,
following an engine change. In an incident-packed race, Jenson came
from fourteenth on the grid to win his first race, with Barrichello
finishing fourth. After this win, the team's performance went up
noticeably, displaying consistency (if not overall performance)
arguably better than championship leaders Ferrari and Renault.
Button scored as many points as championship runner up
Michael Schumacher in the last third of
the season.
Both drivers earned points finishes in almost
all the remaining races (with the exception of Barrichello's 12th
place finish in Japan), with the
season ending high note with Button's 3rd place finish in the
Brazil - less than a
second behind 2nd place Fernando
Alonso - after having to start from 14th on the
grid.
On November 15, 2006, it was announced that long time
BAR Honda and Honda test driver,
Anthony Davidson would be heading to
Super Aguri F1 to race alongside
Takuma Sato. He was replaced by ex-Red
Bull racer
Christian Klien for the
2007 season.
2007
Earthdreams livery on Honda's
trucks.
With tobacco sponsorship in F1 in full decline, 2007 also saw the
end of
British American
Tobacco's sponsorship of Honda, allowing the team to choose a
livery that better suited their corporate image. Unveiled on 26
February 2007, the RA107 car featured the bare minimum of corporate
advertising (advertising required by the FIA), instead focusing on
Honda's environmental desires, with a livery depicting the planet
Earth against the black background of space.
On the rear wing was the web address of environmental awareness
website
myearthdream.com. This site was launched February 27,
2007, immediately after the official launch of the 2007 car.
Reactions to the new Honda livery were mixed, with
Greenpeace accusing the team of being
hypocritical, given how polluting F1 is.
The team's form in pre-season testing was patchy, and
Jenson Button urged the squad to improve. The
RA-107's sheer lack of pace was evident at the season-opening
Australian Grand Prix in
Melbourne on March 18, with Button and
Barrichello qualifying 14th and 17th
respectively (well behind the 'satellite'
Super Aguri team, whose car is effectively an
update of the previous year's Honda, the RA-106). Barrichello
finished the race in 11th place, with Button in 15th after
receiving a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
The team
also failed to score points in the four subsequent races, their
best finish being 10th in Spain
and Monaco,
scored both times by Rubens
Barrichello. Honda finally scored a point in the
French Grand Prix, courtesy
of Button's eighth place finish.
From July 2007, recognising the aerodynamic problems within the
car, Honda began to recruit a new team from across the Formula 1
paddock. Chief aerodynamicist
Loic
Bigois and assistant Francois Martinet were signed from
WilliamsF1;
Jörg Zander and John Owen from
BMW Sauber either later in 2007 or early in
2008.
2008
On July 19, 2007, it was announced that Barrichello and Button
would continue the factory effort as teammates into 2008. On
November 12 2007, autosport.com
confirmed that former Ferrari technical director
Ross Brawn was to join Honda as team principal.
Nick Fry remained with the team as Chief
Executive. On the 10th January 2008, it was announced that
Alexander Wurz had signed as test driver for
the
2008 Formula One
Season.On 29 January 2008, Honda launched their 2008 race car.
The "Earth Car" had a slightly different livery from its 2007
counterpart, with only part of the car containing the earth
picture, and the rest with Honda's classic white paint. Button,
Barrichello and Wurz were present at the launch.
Honda had another disappointing year, and by mid-season they had
switched development to the 2009 season, where new regulations come
into play. Despite this, Barrichello managed a podium in the wet
British Grand Prix with an inspired choice to full wet weather
tyres at the right moment.
2009
The team
continued until the end of the 2008 season, when Honda again exited
the sport, unwilling to continue the Brackley
-based team's
$300 million budget and staff of 700 during an extended period of
global economic
crisis. Nick Fry and other Honda
F1 senior team management "intend to make every effort possible to
secure the future of the team"; stated they had received assurances
that "Honda will provide the necessary support to complete the
Honda RA109, the team's
2009 F1 contender and believed they
"can still have a very successful
2009 season if a new owner can be
found."
Many possible new owners were linked to the
team, including Prodrive boss David Richards and Mexican
billionaire
Carlos Slim . It was also
rumoured that the team would enter the 2009 season with backing
from driver
Bruno Senna's personal
sponsors and Honda itself. Senna would have been joined by
Jenson Button and the team would have used
Mercedes-Benz engines.
On 18 February, it was confirmed that
Virgin Group had made a bid to buy the team.
However, the team was eventually saved by a management buy-out led
by Honda Racing team principal Ross Brawn. On 25 February, the
team's attorney registered the domains 'brawnracing.com' and
'brawnracing.co.uk', hinting at the possibility that the team might
race under a new name.
Rubens
Barrichello was confirmed as
Jenson
Button's teammate for the 2009 season on 2 March.
On 6 March, Honda Motor Company announced that the Formula One team had been sold to Ross Brawn and formed a new team, Brawn GP.
Formula One results
(
key) (results
in
bold indicate pole position)
Grand Prix wins
Pole positions
References
Specific references:
- Honda withdraws from Formula One racing from
the International Herald
Tribune
-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/4841355/Honda-buy-out-gets-green-light.html
- The Official Formula 1 Website
- Honda Racing F1 Team Reacts to Honda Withdrawal
from F1, a December 5, 2008 press release from the team's
official website
General references:
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