Honda has participated in Formula One, as an entrant, constructor and machine supplier, for various periods since 1964. Honda's involvement in Formula One began in the 1964 season; Their withdrawal in 1968 was triggered by the death of Honda driver Jo Schlesser during the 1968 French Grand Prix. They returned in 1983 as a machine supplier, a role that ended in 1992. They returned again in 2000, providing engines for British American Racing (BAR). By the end of 2005 they had purchased a BAR team, based in Brackley, England, and renamed their new branch, Honda Racing.
It was announced on December 5, 2008 that Honda would exit Formula One immediately because of the global financial crisis and want to sell their teams. On February 27, 2009 it was announced that the main team of Ross Brawn had led the purchase of Brackley's management team. The team was a success as Brawn GP in 2009.
On May 17, 2013, Honda announced their intention to return to the sport in the 2015 season under a work agreement with McLaren to supply the V6 engine and kinetic energy recovery system unit (KERS). Honda engines proved to be unreliable, fuel-hungry, and less powerful, with Honda's head calling engine reliability problems a "disaster". McLaren split with Honda after three years, with Toro Rosso agreeing to use Honda engines in 2018.
Video Honda in Formula One
Honda as a racing team
Honda's R & amp; Company D (1964-1968)Honda entered the Formula One Grand Prix race in 1964 just four years after producing their first car. They started RA271 development in 1962 and shocked the European-dominated Formula One garages with their all-Japanese factory teams (except for American Ronnie Bucknum and Richie Ginther). What is more surprising is the fact that Honda built their own engine and chassis, something that only Ferrari and BRM - from other teams that were still running in 1962 - had previously been done.
In just their second year of competition, Honda reached the top of the coveted podium with a Ginther victory at RA272 in the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. For the new 3.0L rule from 1966, Honda introduced the Honda RA273. Although the RA273 engine is well-designed, ~ 360Ã, bhp V12, the car was let down by a relatively heavy and heavy internal chassis. Honda returned to the winning circle in 1967 with the new Honda RA300, propelled by John Surtees. It won the 1967 Italian Grand Prix just in the first Formula One race. The RA300 chassis is designed in part by Lola in the UK, and this produces a car dubbed Hondola by the automotive press. This is the last competitive car that Honda produced for Formula One in the 1960s.
The following year Honda RA301 only reached the podium twice. The new Honda RA302 team appeared in just one race at Rouen-Les-Essarts, which only lasted a few laps before a fiery accident resulted in the death of driver Jo Schlesser. Death prompted Honda to withdraw from Formula One at the end of the 1968 season.
Formula One 1999 project abortion
From 1993 to 1998, Honda's only presence in Formula One was as a machine supplier through its independent partner, Mugen Motorsports, which supplied engines to Footwork, Lotus, Ligier, Prost and Jordan. The Mugen-powered car had won 4 Grand Prix at the end of the 1999 season. In 1998, Honda seriously considered entering Formula One as a constructor, as far as producing engines and hiring Harvey Postlethwaite as a technical director and designer. In addition, Honda drew engineer Kyle Petryshen from HRC to assist with the design, implementation, and management of new engines in the new chassis. The test car, RA099, designed by Postlethwaite and built by Dallara, was created and tested during 1999, fueled by Jos Verstappen. The team was impressed at the test session, beating some of the more experienced and better financed teams, even if they were mostly in midfield. In this test car, Postlethwaite suffered a fatal heart attack, the project was then suspended and Honda decided to only comment as a full-engine work supplier for BAR, starting in 2000.
In September 2005, Honda bought 55% of BAR's remaining shares to become sole proprietors. BAT went on to sponsor the title with the Lucky Strike brand in 2006, but retired from Formula 1 for 2007. It was decided that the team would race under the name Honda Racing F1 Team starting 2006.
2006 season
Despite showing pre-season promise (with the RA106 considered one of the most powerful of the new V8 engines), Honda showed a fairly mediocre performance at the start of the 2006 season despite the pole position in Australia. Before winning in Hungary, they only collected a podium, third place from Jenson Button in Malaysia. The main reason for the lack of form (the team expects to challenge for the championship) comes down to reliability, with the team breaking out of the showdown to race victories many times. The pit stop problem also hampered the team early on, in one case effectively damaging Jenson Button's chances for great results and podium at Imola. Rubens Barrichello did not have a good season for the team, coming to the fact that he had to get used to the brakes and the new traction control, having moved from a very successful six-year stint at Ferrari. Nevertheless, Rubens has qualified his team-mates in two of the last four races.
Honda had a very bad performance at the British Grand Prix in 2006. In particular, Jenson Button was knocked out after the first part of qualifying after the team failed to get him out for a second run. This produces 19 qualifications. He then retired with an oil leak. Given this ugly form, it was announced that Geoff Willis would adopt a plant-based role to concentrate on aerodynamics. After the appointment of Senior Technical Director Shuhei Nakamoto over the heads of Willis and Mariano Alperin-Bruvera as the position of the Head of Aerodynamics Willis looked difficult, and reports indicate that he left the team.
At Hungaroring, fate changed. Barrichello and Button qualified third and fourth, although Button had to go down ten places, following the engine changes. In a full race of incidents, Button came from fourteen on the grid to win his first race, with Barrichello finishing fourth. After this victory, team performance improved, showing consistency (if not overall performance) arguably better than championship leaders Ferrari and Renault. Button scored as many points as runner-up champion Michael Schumacher in the final third of the season. Both drivers earned points in almost all remaining races (with the exception of finish in 12th place Barrichello in Japan), with the season ending on a record high with the release of 3rd Button in Brazil - less than a second behind second place Fernando Alonso - after starting from the 14th on the grid.
On November 15, 2006, it was announced that long BAR Honda and Honda test driver Anthony Davidson would head to Super Aguri F1 for the race alongside Takuma Sato. He was replaced by former Red Bull Racing driver Christian Klien for the 2007 season.
2007 season
With tobacco sponsorship in Formula One in full setback, 2007 also saw the end of British American Tobacco sponsorship of Honda, allowing teams to choose livery that fits their corporate image. Inaugurated on February 26, 2007, the RA107 car displays the company's minimum advertising (ad required by the FIA) instead of focusing on Honda's environmental desire, with a livery depicting the Earth planet with a black background space. In the rear wing is the web address of the myearthdream.com environmental awareness web site. The site was launched February 27, 2007, shortly after the official launch of the 2007 car. The reaction to the new Honda livery was mixed, and Greenpeace accused the team of hypocrisy, given the pollution from F1.
The team's form in pre-season testing is uneven, and Jenson Button is urging the squad to improve. The RA-107's lack of speed was evident in the Australian Grand Prix which opened the season in Melbourne on March 18, with Button and Barrichello respectively occupying the 14th and 17th positions (well behind the "satellite" Super Aguri team, effectively an update of Honda the previous year, RA-106). Barrichello completed the race in 11th place, with Button at number 15 after receiving a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The team also failed to score points in the next four races, their best finish being the 10th in Spain and Monaco, which were twice printed by Rubens Barrichello. Honda finally scored one point in the French Grand Prix, thanks to Button's eighth position.
From July 2007, recognizing aerodynamic problems in the car, Honda began recruiting new teams from all Formula 1 paddocks. Head of aerodynamics Loic Bigois and assistant Francois Martinet signed from WilliamsF1; JÃÆ'¶rg Zander and John Owen from BMW Sauber in 2007 or early 2008.
2008 season
On July 19, 2007, it was announced that Barrichello and Button would continue the factory's efforts as team mates to 2008. On 12 November 2007, autosport.com confirmed that Ferrari's former technical director Ross Brawn would join Honda as team chief. Nick Fry remains with the team as Chief Executive. On January 10, 2008, it was announced that Alexander Wurz had signed as a tester for the 2008 season. On January 29, 2008, Honda launched their 2008 race car. "Earth Car" has a slightly different style from its counterpart in 2007, with only some cars containing earth images, and the rest with the classic white paint of Honda. Button, Barrichello and Wurz were present at launch.
Honda had another disappointing year, and by mid-season they had switched development to the 2009 season, where new rules came into effect. Nevertheless, Barrichello managed to climb the podium in a wet British Grand Prix with inspired options for wet tires full of weather at just the right moment.
Sales and establishment of Brawn GP
Honda quit the sport at the end of the 2008 season, unwilling to continue the 300 million dollar Brackley team budget and 700 staff during the global economic crisis. The team continued to work on the Honda RA109 for the 2009 season while Honda was trying to sell the racing team. A number of potential owners associated with the team, including Prodrive boss David Richards, Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, and Virgin Group.
The team was eventually rescued by a buy-out management led by team principal Ross Brawn and chief executive Nick Fry, and will enter the 2009 season as Brawn GP. The team retains Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello as drivers, and will use Mercedes-supplied engines. Honda will continue to provide financial support during the first year of the team, and Virgin Group related to team purchases will sponsor cars throughout the season. Brawn won the overall title in what would prove to be the only season before another identity change.
Formula One Results
( italics shows non-working entries bold shows championships won)
Maps Honda in Formula One
Honda as a machine supplier
Spirit, Williams, Lotus, McLaren and Tyrrell (1983-1992)
Honda returned to Formula One in 1983 as a machine supplier for Spirit and lived in the sport for a decade, at various times in collaboration with Williams (1983-87), Lotus (1987-88), McLaren (1988-92) and finally Tyrrell (1991). Although they often supply their machines to more than one team per season, Honda does not always provide the same engine specifications for different teams in the same season. For example, in 1987 when Williams had an existing contract, they were supplied with the latest 1.5-liter RA167-E V6 engine, while Lotus was supplied with a 1986 RA166-E engine that had to be adapted to lower fuel and turbo limits. increasing restrictions, thus limiting its effectiveness, although for the last year of the original turbo era in 1988, Lotus and McLaren used the same RA168-E specification. Also, in 1991, while McLaren had the latest RA121-E V12, Tyrrell was only given the RA100-E V10 that McLaren used in 1990. McLaren has direct support of Honda's factory, with engines coming directly from Japan's corporate racing division in Japan. ; while Tyrrell had to settle for the previous RA-100 model tuned by Honda Mugen's personal tuner; they have little or no direct factory support.
Both Lotus in 1987-88 and Tyrrell in 1991 gained the use of Honda engines largely because they agreed to sign former Honda test driver Satoru Nakajima as one of their team drivers for the season.
As an engine supplier, Honda made its debut in the World Championship with Spirit racer Stefan Johansson in 1983 at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Johansson qualified in an exciting 14th position (albeit about 4.5 seconds slower than pole), though he will retire after just 5 laps with fuel problems. Johansson has given Honda its debut song earlier in the year at the 1983 Race non-Championship Champions at Brands Hatch (the last non-championship race in F1 history) where although unreliable, the 1.5-liter turbocharged V6 engine dubbed RA163-E was impressed with speed. In the last race of the 1983 season in South Africa, Honda has begun its relationship with Williams in which world champion in power (and out) Keke Rosberg notes that Honda is on track with a 6th qualifier, just 7/10 slower than Ferrari's pole-winning Patrick Tambay.
Rosberg would give Honda his first win as a machine supplier when he beat the pitch to win the Dallas Grand Prix in 1984 and at the end of the 1985 season where Briton Nigel Mansell and Rosberg won the last 3 races of the season (Rosberg had won that year's Detroit Grand Prix) that Honda has a machine to beat in Formula One.
At its peak (1986-91), Honda engines were regarded as the ticket to the triumph of the Grand Prix due to their strength, reliability, sophistication, and track record. Honda's commitment to F1 was such that Nigel Mansell, driving a Honda-powered Williams car from 1985 to 1987, recalls in an interview in 2011 that Honda made and developed 4 to 6 completely different engines in a single season. Honda supplied its engines to six consecutive champion titles (two with Williams 1986-87 and four with McLaren 1988-91), as well as five consecutive driver championships (one by Nelson Piquet in 1987, three by Ayrton Senna in 1988, 1990 and 1991, and one by Alain Prost in 1989), before getting out of the sport again.
The main year of Honda in its days as a machine supplier came with McLaren in 1988. Mated to Steve Nichols who designed the McLaren MP4/4 and with Double World Champion Alain Prost and Brazilian Ayrton Senna as the racer, McLaren-Honda had a nearly perfect season. Unlike most, Honda built all new V6 turbo (RA168-E) for this year to overcome the reduced fuel limit (150 liters) and turbo boost limit (2.5 BAR, down from 4.0 BAR in 1987) and it paid a large dividend McLaren-Honda claimed 15 pole positions in 16 races, 13 for Senna, and also claimed 15 race wins, 8 from Senna (new season record) and 7 from Prost which actually equaled the old record he held along with Jim Clark. McLaren scored a record then 199 points in Constructors Championship, a massive 134 points ahead of second-placed Ferrari (whose driver Gerhard Berger was the only non-McLaren pole winner in England and the only non-McLaren winner in Italy), while Senna and Prost is the only rider competing for the Driver Championship which Senna finally won. Prost actually scored more points than Senna during this season, largely thanks to a 7-second-place finish to go with his 7 wins, but under the rules of time only 11 best scores counted for the championship who saw the title go to Brazil.
Right in the final race of the original turbo era of Formula One, the 1988 Australian Grand Prix, the Honda powered engine closed the podium with Prost beating Senna with Lotus of Nelson Piquet completing an easy 3.
Honda's last win as a machine supplier came when Gerhard Berger won the 1992 Australian Grand Prix driving a McLaren MP4/7A using a 3.5-liter RA122E/B V12 engine.
The Honda-powered car had won the 71 Grand Prix at the end of the 1992 season, 69 of them as engine suppliers between 1983 and 1992. Williams had 23 wins (75 races) and Lotus 2 wins (32 races) while McLaren gave Japan the company 44 wins from 80 starts with the team.
BAR and Jordan (2000-2005)
Honda returned again in 2000, providing engines for BAR. They also supplied engines to the Jordan Grand Prix for 2001 and 2002. This will lead to a battle for the right to use Honda engines in the long run. In 2003, although they performed better in the previous two seasons, Honda dropped the Jordan Grand Prix. In mid-November 2004 Honda bought 45% of the BAR team from British American Tobacco (BAT, founder and owner of BAR) after BAR's best season, when they were able to reach second place in 2004, a year dominated by Michael Schumacher and Ferrari.
McLaren (2015-2017)
Honda returned to Formula One as an engine supplier in 2015, reviving their relationship with 1980 partner McLaren. For the 2015 championship, Honda supplies the McLaren with the RA615H, a direct-injected 1.6 L direct-injection V6 engine. The engine is designed with the strictly aerodynamic design and aerodynamic requirements of McLaren, which they call their "zero size" philosophy. During the season, the engines proved to be very underpowered and inefficient. The team was hit with a record 105-grid spot-kick in the Belgian Grand Prix after needing to make a number of changes to their power unit. In Belgium, the head of the Yasuhisa Arai engine, claims that its engine is 25 horsepower (19 kW) stronger than the Renault plant, and "a bit" behind Ferrari. However, just one race later in Monza, Arai admitted that the Honda engine is actually 180 horsepower (130 kW) down at Renault. Arai refused to apologize for the poor performance of the machine. He was replaced as head of Honda's Formula One program by Yusuke Hasegawa on March 1, 2016, with Arai taking on the role of senior managing officer at Honda's HQ Sakura. McLaren-Honda finished the 2015 season in 9th place in the World Constructors Championship standings with 27 points.
For the 2016 season, McLaren uses an improved Honda RA616H power unit. The season started more positive than the previous year and after only six races, the team had scored 24 points, 3 shy points from the previous season total. Reliability and performance are still a problem, and in June 2016, Hasegawa admitted that poor Honda engine performance meant that "only luck would put them on this year's podium" and "in our current situation, not many teams want our engine". In September 2016, Hasegawa announced that Honda has a separate team that has been working on machines next year. McLaren-Honda finished in sixth place in the final Constructors standings with 76 points, a marked improvement from a year earlier.
At the start of the 2017 season, Honda claims that their engine is "equivalent to Mercedes 2016". However, in pre-season testing, Honda engines are described as "unreliable and under power" by racers and double world champion Alonso, with a lack of power which means the car is 30 km/h in straight. In the Spanish Grand Prix, McLaren is very disappointed with Honda's engine performance and although McLaren receives $ 100 million a year in budget investment from Honda as well as free engines, by 2017 McLaren approaches Mercedes rivals for potential engine supplies. Honda Hasegawa engine chief admitted that Honda thought it would be "easy" to develop engine technology to pursue its rivals by 2017, but the fact that Honda has found that "too difficult to achieve new technology". One race later, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Alonso commented on the Honda engine radio radio: "I have never competed with smaller powers in my life". For the Russian Grand Prix, Honda implemented a reliability update for the engine. However, during qualifying, Alonso described the low-power Honda engines as "extraordinary". Furthermore, on Sunday, Honda in Alonso's car broke down in a march, leaving him unable to make an early grid. Meanwhile, the Vandoorne machine broke out again leaving it with a 15-place grid penalty for having used more engine components during the first three races of the team allowed to be used for a season. The seriousness of Honda's reliability continued in Spain where Alonso broke down after just three corners, and the Vandoorne machine also failed to award a 10-point penalty. The poor performance of the Honda engines left McLaren-Honda at the bottom of the Constructors Championship with 0 points. During the weekend of the Monaco Grand Prix, the Alonso rider ran on the Indianapolis 500 where Honda's engine in his car failed but not in the end the winner of the Indy 500 race car powered by Takuma Sato Honda.
At the Canadian Grand Prix, Honda failed to deliver the promised engine upgrade. McLaren described Honda as "they looked a bit lost" and expressed "serious concern" about whether Honda would be able to build a machine that could win a world championship. A day later, during the first exercise, Honda's engine broke down with Alonso commenting that "we're used". Alonso engine failed again during the race. After the latest engine failure, the McLaren racing director, Boullier described the Honda power plant as "simple, and really, not good enough". The partial engine upgrade was finally delivered to Alonso at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, however, due to a penalty taken for using the new engine, Alonso would start the final race, thus, Honda decided to use a new engine only during free practice 1 and 2 to validate its effectiveness and save mileage for GP where they will be in a better position, Alonso then returns to previous engine specifications for qualifying and racing. This test gives encouraging results for the team, but it is cut short during FP2 before Alonso can perform full speed due to transmission failure. In the British Grand Prix, Alonso's engine broke out again forcing Honda to replace it and be subjected to a 30-place grid penalty. The new engine should have received increased reliability, but failed during the race after just one hour of use, which caused Alonso to retire. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Honda praised its first race in three years without engine failure. However, just two days later during testing, Honda engines experienced another failure. In Free Practice 1 in Belgium, Honda sent the latest engine upgrades, but the engine failed in five minutes. At Monza, Alonso had to take a 35 grid penalty because his Honda engine needed to be replaced again, while Vandoorne suffered a loss of engine power during qualifying. Vandoorne needed a change of engine that resulted in another grid penalty. However, during the race, Vandoorne's new engine failed. Unfortunately, the glory days of McLaren Honda in the late 1980s and early 1990s can not be revived and the partnership broke up after 2017.
Toro Rosso (2018 -)
On September 15, 2017, it was announced that Honda would become the engine supplier for Toro Rosso for the 2018 season. As part of the deal, McLaren shifted its engine supply with Toro Rosso and is now supported by Renault. Honda stated that the goal is to make Toro Rosso one of the top three teams by 2018. The pre-season started out very unbelievably for the team with the reliability of Honda's power units that helped them to record on the second lap of all teams on the grid and though a couple of small gremlins and MGU-H profiling problems derail the successful debut for the team at their Australian opener proceeding to record the finished P4 at the Bahrain GP. Honda's best appearance in the latest plunge into Formula One.
Formula One customer machine results
World Constructors Win Championship
Grand Prix Results
Bold indicates the current engine deal.
src: wallpaper.imcphoto.net
References
src: fm.cnbc.com
External links
- the Honda F1 website
- History of Honda F1
- Honda Racing F1 'View Suspended'
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments