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Honda’s official exit from Formula 1 got a little lost in the whirlwind end to the 2021 season.
Any appetite for sentiment around the Japanese manufacturer’s departure has perhaps also been lessened by the fact the engine project lives on, badged as Red Bull Powertrains, and will even have Honda’s support in terms of maintenance and assembly of the existing power units in Japan.
A soft exit it may be, but it’s an exit nonetheless. Honda’s fourth era in F1 is officially over after seven seasons that followed a twisting, dramatic narrative. It’s scarcely believable that the same Honda project that looked hopelessly lost just a few years ago with McLaren reached the level it did with Red Bull, culminating in Max Verstappen’s title.
We recently documented that transformation. For that piece, I had an interview with Honda’s F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe. It started by asking him to rate Honda’s F1 project out of 10 at different stages: the beginning in 2015, when he joined in 2018, and where it got to by the end of 2021.
He thought about it, held his hand flat in mid-air and said: “We started at zero.”
Then he smiled and moved his hand down some imaginary levels: “And then…minus!”
Tanabe is very respectful of his predecessors but having a little laugh at that time showed how far Honda had come, to be able to poke fun at it.
For the record, Tanabe’s serious answer to that question was: “If I say a starting point of zero, maybe we are now 8/10.” I reckon a 9 is fair, but Tanabe has never been much of a hype-man. Nothing ever seemed good enough for him and there has always been something to improve.
That anecdote feels worth sharing because it shows a little of the human side of a project that was often in the background – a side I suppose I saw more than most people got to over three years of trying to cover Honda’s story in greater detail.
Honda was always generous with its time in return. Its people were always good to deal with and it was fascinating to follow Honda’s story up close. I wasn’t in F1 when Honda was really struggling, but I have a very good appreciation for the emotion that the people there went through and I was there when they were coming out of it, rebuilding, and then enjoying success.
I saw what it meant to Honda first-hand. And I know how much it hurt in Japan when Honda pulled the plug. It was hard for them to take, a different kind of sting but a similar human impact to the early criticism hurt so deeply.
Honda’s F1 managing director Masashi Yamamoto was the man who had to answer to the board. He defended the project and its people, which seemed a very difficult but personal exercise as the R&D side is where he’d come from. The reward was the transformation that resulted in 17 race wins and Max Verstappen’s drivers’ championship.
“I’m proud of what we have done,” Yamamoto said. “It was right that we continued. And I’m so proud of the people in R&D.”
The road to Honda’s peak was long and winding. And the human element is easily overlooked.
All those jokes in 2015, the digs, the criticism, lots of people poking fun at Honda for three seasons – there were real people at the other end of that. An awful lot of work and effort had gone into the start of the Honda project only for these people to have their competency called into question and face very public ridicule on the grandest motorsport stage.
Many of the same people have now created a title-winning engine. That’s the beauty of sport, even one as dominated by technology as F1.
There is also the potential for a story arc of redemption.
Honda’s difficulties meant there was a lot of doubt even within the company, with high-ranking people wondering whether it could really get out of its mess and those at the coalface seeing no sign of a reprieve.
For the same people to have had the chance to regroup, to see the project through to the very end and show what they’re capable of is a great human story as well as a sporting one.
There’s no point pretending that it was sheer pluck and courage that turned Honda’s fortunes around. It required a massive amount of investment and expense, Honda really did throw everything at it. But that doesn’t detract from the human element, as the people who had to experience such lows also got their shot at redemption – and took it.
Honda contributed something great to Formula 1 on a technological, human and sporting level over the last few years. Its product will continue in F1 but its presence will be invisible and gradually phased out in different ways. And F1 will be poorer for that.
