[RahulNagaraj]

Honda has announced a full-scale return to Formula 1 as a works power unit supplier to the Aston Martin Cognizant F1 team. The Japanese manufacturer will re-enter the sport in the 2026 season when the new engine regulations come into effect.

Honda stated that its quick decision to return to Formula 1 was due to the sports sustainability ambitions for the future. With F1 aiming to be net carbon zero by 2030, the sport will switch to sustainable fuels from 2026 while the new power units will also be boosted by a greater proportion of electrical power.



Honda announced its exit from the sport in 2020 and officially withdrew from F1 at the end of the 2021 season. The Japanese manufacturer currently has a supply deal with Red Bull, which will continue till the end of the 2025 season. Red Bull went their own way with their own in-house power unit division and a new partnership with Ford from the 2026 season.

The Silverstone-based F1 team, now Aston Martin, on the other hand, has been powered by Mercedes engines since 2009. Mercedes will continue powering Aston Martin till the end of the 2025 season, while also supplying them with the gearbox and rear suspension.

Honda also announced that they will not be supplying power units to "any other parties" apart from Aston Martin from 2026 onwards.

Source: F1

Link to Team-BHP news

[jpcoolguy]

Time for Alonso' retirement once again

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by jpcoolguy

Time for Alonso' retirement once again

Alonso will be long gone before 2026.

It appears that Lawrence Stroll really wants AMR to succeed and is leaving no stone unturned. You are always at a disadvantage as a customer team. So AMR is taking up the entire operation inhouse instead of buying parts from Mercedes.

[sen2693]

Didn't Honda "sell" their facilities to RBR Powertrains? Will they build a new one now?

[Agarwal_Aayush]

Good news for both the company's, hoping it would be a great partnership. Alonso's future with them seems unlikely 2026 onwards.

On the other hand, I wonder where would Aston Martin fit Honda in there name now as there name is already really big having Aramco and Congnizant apart from there own name

[ds.raikkonen]

This time around, Honda will ensure it does not produce another GP2 engine for Alonso, if he sticks around that long!

[ads11]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

It appears that Lawrence Stroll really wants AMR to succeed and is leaving no stone unturned. You are always at a disadvantage as a customer team. So AMR is taking up the entire operation inhouse instead of buying parts from Mercedes.

Where have we heard this before.. Oh would you look at that, if it isn't little old Marty Whitmarsh in the C-suite at Aston's racing outfit these days. Funny how life comes full circle.

I can't wait to see the famously patient and totally not irascible Papa Stroll come to grips with the inevitable dithering and prevaricating shenanigans from Honda leadership. That's going to be an interesting off the grid dynamic.

Originally Posted by sen2693

Didn't Honda "sell" their facilities to RBR Powertrains? Will they build a new one now?

Honestly it's an absolute clown show trying to make sense of how Honda finds itself in this situation. Those dayglo Mclaren-Honda years really do a lot of heavy lifting for the reputation of Honda in F1 considering they've been a bit of a feckless outfit ever since they bought out BAR. When it comes to F1 entities fated to make famously ill timed decisions, honestly I can't think of a better pairing than Fernando and Honda. Think about it, both seem to make the wrong call at the right time, every time. Honda misjudged the diamond in the rough they had with the eventual Brawn GP chassis, they pulled out of F1 just as their hybrid PU was coming good. I could go on.

The silver lining here though is that for the first time in forever it looks like Fernando has turned a corner when it comes to him jumping ship. Could Honda's luck in their decision making be making a turn for the better? Guess we'll all have to wait and see.

I just know if I was a shareholder or a board member, I'd be livid at the sunk cost of the entire F1 engine programme in this hybrid era thus far, especially the fact that after all that, it was bloomin Red Bull who ended up taking the family china with them. Now HRC have to rebuild their in house engine capability back from the ground up, all thanks to their short sighted executives.

[RM Motorsports]

Originally Posted by sen2693

Didn't Honda "sell" their facilities to RBR Powertrains? Will they build a new one now?

Honda F1 engines were and are still built in Sakura, Japan. Their UK facility was just a service bay in between races to check the engine health.

RBR Powertrains is a completely new facility built by Redbull Racing next to their existing factory.