Much as Formula One racer Max Verstappen did this season on the track, Honda Motor Co. is putting the pedal to the metal in the shift from gas engine vehicles. 

Honda is concentrating its resources on the development of electric cars and fuel cell vehicles and leaving the Formula One racing circuit after this season.

Verstappen, who drives for Red Bull Racing Honda, made sure the Japanese automaker is exiting F1 racing on a high note. 

The Belgian-Dutch driver won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to take the Formula One Drivers’ World Championship title. The achievement is the first of its kind in 30 years for Honda.

On Dec. 19, the first Sunday following Verstappen's stunning victory, the Welcome Plaza exhibition space on the first floor of Honda’s headquarters in Tokyo’s Aoyama district was flooded with crowds of people who visited there to view F1-themed displays.

A male company employee, 34, who described himself as an F1 aficionado, said he lives in the capital and has gone to see races on many occasions.

“I loved to see Honda competing in the world’s top racing event, so its departure is disappointing,” he said. “I now have no reason to enjoy watching F1 competitions.”

Honda started testing its technologies on F1 tracks in 1964, after then company President Soichiro Honda, founder of the automaker, had begun producing the company's automobiles.

Honda marked its golden era in F1 during the 1980s to the 1990s, such as McLaren Honda driver Ayrton Senna winning the World Championship in 1988, so the company's success on the F1 circuit made waves throughout Japan.

Winning in F1 was important not only in changing the way consumers looked at Honda but also for honing techniques involving engine development. Races were regarded as “driving laboratories,” and refined skills taken from the track were utilized for models catering to ordinary motorists.

Given that F1 provided an opportunity for Honda to improve its brand image by showing off exceptional engine technologies, some F1 lovers see Honda’s decision to withdraw in 2021 as regrettable.

Previously, Honda had repeatedly pulled out of and re-entered F1 at the time of the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008 and on other occasions. The latest decision to withdraw for the fourth time, however, was made with seemingly no hesitation.

“We will never compete (in F1) again unless it becomes clear when we can establish technologies for EVs and FCVs,” asserted a senior Honda official.

Amid automakers’ increased tendency to move toward a carbon-free society all over the world, enterprises mainly in Europe and China are stepping up efforts to substitute greener engines for their gas-powered counterparts.

In line with the trend, Honda in April announced its goal of replacing all cars newly marketed around the globe with EVs or FCVs by 2040.

“We set the target as part of a package with the F1 exit,” said Honda President Toshihiro Mibe. “I would like F1 engineers to devote themselves to decarbonization from now.”

Under the plan, tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) spent annually for management and personnel for racing in F1 will be diverted to the development of EVs and FCVs.

Honda is also streamlining its manufacturing system.

An assembly plant in Britain was closed for good this past summer, while, in Japan, the production of completed vehicles is expected to be discontinued at a factory in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, at the end of 2021.

Funds to be invested in engine development for commercially available cars will be slashed, and an engine parts factory in Mooka, Tochigi Prefecture, will be shut down in 2025.

A challenge is that Honda has only one electric car--the Honda e model released in autumn 2020--in the market, whereas it focuses increasingly on EVs and FCVs. An FCV called Clarity Fuel Cell was put on sale in 2016, but its production was halted in August 2021.

Honda is looking to crack open the eco-friendly automobile market with minivehicles as an electric minicar is to be rolled out in 2024.

“Starting with minivehicles, we will spread the use of EVs,” said a senior Honda official. “It will be enough for us to pitch standard-size models, when consumers feel like purchasing them after a sufficient number of recharging facilities are introduced. The key moment in the Japanese market will come in 2030 or later.”