Formula 1 sporting director Ross Brawn is “optimistic” Honda can be enticed to return to the championship by its next-generation engine rules.
The Japanese manufacturer, which currently supplies power units to Red Bull and its sister team AlphaTauri, has announced earlier this month that it would be withdrawing from F1 at the end of 2021.
Honda claimed the decision was not influenced by profits or the impact of the COVID-19 pandemics, but rather a switch towards a more environmentally-oriented focus, which left it believing that the engineering resources tied up in its F1 programme would be better used elsewhere.
And though Honda president and CEO Takahiro Hachigo made it clear the company would not be considering a return to F1 in the short term, Brawn has expressed his belief that F1’s continued push towards manufacturer-relevant technologies would make a u-turn possible.
“I’m optimistic when their situation changes and when F1 evolves, we can engage them again as Honda have always been important and welcome members of the F1 community in the past and hopefully for the future,” Brawn wrote in his F1.com column after the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.
“All automotive companies are facing massive challenges at the moment, and we as F1 need to respond to that and make sure F1 meets those challenges, stays relevant and becomes more relevant to provide automotive partners with viable challenges within F1 which can provide support with their objectives away from F1.
“I hope a new power unit formula which will be introduced no later than 2026 will encourage them to come back again. We’ll also be encouraging them to be part of new FIA working groups, which will recommend what sort of power unit we will adopt in the future.”
Brawn, who joined Honda as team principal at the end of 2007 and bought out the team from the departing manufacturer a year later with spectacular subsequent results, made reference to Honda’s latest exit being its fourth during his time in motorsport.
He then concluded by saying: “They have been great partners in F1 and I look forward to working with them in future.”
