By TAKUMI WAKAI/ Staff Writer
May 24, 2023 at 17:31 JST
Honda Motor Co. teamed with McLaren in Formula One between 2015 and 2017. (Reuters file photo)
New regulations aimed at making Formula One a carbon-neutral motor sport are driving Honda Motor Co. back to the track in 2026 as an engine supplier to the Aston Martin team, the company said on May 24.
From 2026, F1 race cars will be required to increase the electric motor output of the power unit, which combines the engine and energy control technologies, and also use 100 percent sustainable fuel.
Honda decided to make a comeback as it concluded that development of technologies to meet the new F1 regulations will benefit efforts to reduce carbon emissions from passenger cars and other commercial models.
The automaker plans to sell only electric vehicles and fuel-cell vehicles globally by 2040, the most ambitious goal for decarbonization among domestic automakers.
Honda, which first entered F1 in 1964, has pulled out from the motor sport and returned several times.
It announced its fourth withdrawal from F1 competition in 2020 as participation was said to require tens of billions of yen a year in development and other costs.
Takahiro Hachigo, Honda’s president at the time, said the company was not considering another return.
The automaker in 2021 stopped supplying a power unit for F1 race cars to concentrate its resources on development of low-carbon technologies.
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