Currently reading: Breaking: Honda to quit F1 after 2021 season
Engine supplier to Red Bull and AlphaTauri will exit the sport at the end of the 2021 season

Honda will quit Formula 1 at the end of next season, citing the need to focus its resources and spending on the development of battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell technology.

The shocking news means that Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri – the only two teams other than Mercedes-AMG to score race wins so far in 2020 – will be looking for a new engine supplier for the 2022 season.

The Japanese firm returned to F1 as an engine supplier in 2015 with McLaren. That relationship ended after three tough seasons, with Honda spending a year supplying Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri), before starting to supply Red Bull as well from 2019. Honda has scored five wins in the past two seasons.

But the firm will now quit the sport at the end of the 2021 season, the final year of the current technical regulations. Noting that the car industry is undergoing a “once-in-100-years period of great transformation”, Honda said it “has decided to strive for the ‘realisation of carbon neutrality by 2050’.”

It added: “Towards this end, Honda needs to funnel its corporate resources in research and development into the areas of future power unit and energy technologies, including fuel cell vehicles and battery EV technologies, which will be the core of carbon-free technologies.”

Honda recently launched its first electric car, thHonda E E supermini, and added that the learnings it has made developing the 1.6-litre hybrid powertrain used in F1 will benefit its new Innovative Research Excellent, Power Unit and Energy centre.

The news will be a major blow to Red Bull and its AlphaTauri junior team, with major questions over a future engine partner. Honda’s withdrawal leaves just Mercedes-AMG, Ferrari and Renault as F1 engine manufacturers.

Mercedes-AMG would be unlikely to be keen on supplying engines to its closest current rival, while Ferrari would likely want to focus its efforts on its works team. 

Red Bull achieved its greatest success using Renault engines, with the partnership dominating the sport from 2010 until 2013. But the relationship grew fractious in its final years, with Renault feeling its contribution to the success wasn’t appreciated.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said that the team “understand and respect the reasoning” behind Honda’s decision. He said: “Their decision presents obvious challenges for us as a team, but we have been here before, and with our strength in depth, we are well prepared and equipped to respond effectively, as we have proven in the past.”

He added: “As a group, we will now take the time afforded to us to further evaluate and find the most competitive power unit solution for 2022 and beyond.”

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AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost said: “It’s unfortunate that Honda has decided to stop their commitment in F1, because their power unit’s performance has been improving constantly and dramatically to become one of the best engines on the grid.” 

The decision also raises questions about the long-term future of F1, with car manufacturers increasingly focusing their resources towards electric and alternatively fuelled cars. F1 bosses have committed to continuing with the current 1.6-litre turbocharged hybrid powertrains for the immediate future, which could make it harder to retain and attract manufacturers eager to promote their non-combustion engine technologies.

While Honda's current spell in F1 dates back to 2015, the firm first entered the sport in 1964, scoring its first race win with John Surtees the following year. After quitting at the end of 1968, the firm returned as an engine supplier in 1983, dominating the sport for much of the decade with the McLaren, Williams and Lotus teams. 

The firm withdrew again in 1991, before returning in 2000 as an engine supplier and eventuallying buying its own team. It took a single win with Jenson Button in 2006, but then quit the sport suddenly at the end of a tough 2008 season due to the global financial crisis.

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James Attwood

James Attwood, digital editor
Title: Acting magazine editor

James is Autocar's acting magazine editor. Having served in that role since June 2023, he is in charge of the day-to-day running of the world's oldest car magazine, and regularly interviews some of the biggest names in the industry to secure news and features, such as his world exclusive look into production of Volkswagen currywurst. Really.

Before first joining Autocar in 2017, James spent more than a decade in motorsport journalist, working on Autosport, autosport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News, covering everything from club rallying to top-level international events. He also spent 18 months running Move Electric, Haymarket's e-mobility title, where he developed knowledge of the e-bike and e-scooter markets. 

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Deputy 4 October 2020

F1 past it's prime

I used to watch every race and attend at least 2 races a year, 25 years ago.  Now days, I maybe watch the highlights if I really have nothing else to watch on Netflix/Prime.  It's increasingly irrelevant and F1 boss, Chase Carey, has a media background not racing or engineering so again what is his plan for it?  Based on the last few years I'd rather we have electric AI cars.  That would be interesting to see how fast they can go and overtake without the limitations of a human on board. (And Autocar, it's crazy how my comments get red flagged for spam if I use quote marks but these bots can post google work from home ads all day long)

sabre 4 October 2020

The right decision

Honda put themselves to shame with dubious reliability, a great shame for a Japanese nanufacturer. Too much money was invested in negative promotion. Alternative investment in carbon free cars is appropriately done for a good cause. some say (according to Jeremy Clarkson phrase), for a good excuse.

The Apprentice 3 October 2020

I suppose the only thing in

I suppose the only thing in it for Honda was reinforcing their reputation for engineering and particularly reliability, wasn't that why Red Bull fell out with Renault, the engines were too unreliable? Honda were not 100% to start with but rapidly improved and are now as you would expect from a Honda engine, superb engineering.