Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
arstechnica.com
Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
1–10 of 403 posts
Re: Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
#2Hmm, I wonder whether there’s a fight going on at HRC over the MotoGP budget?
Re: Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
#3That is awesome! Honda, you rock.
Re: Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
#4That is awesome! Honda, you rock.
They are still committed to Indycar, Le Mans and FIA World Endurance but is all done from the US while the F1 program was more costly to run and also used engineering resources based in Japan.
Re: Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
#5That is awesome! Honda, you rock.
They also just announced that will continue to be an IndyCar supplier for a long while. F1 power units (including the hybrid components) are more efficient than the Indy counterparts. This isn't _actually_ about carbon-free anything... It's about F1 being expensive.
Re: Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
#6That is awesome! Honda, you rock.
The article is worth a read. Honda has quit a few times before.
Re: Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
#7That is awesome! Honda, you rock.
They also just announced that will continue to be an IndyCar supplier for a long while. F1 power units (including the hybrid components) are more efficient than the Indy counterparts. This isn't _actually_ about carbon-free anything... It's about F1 being expensive.
It’s also about positioning. Honda’s brand wasn't performing as well as they would like in F1. Probably in addition to it being expensive.
Re: Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
#8That is awesome! Honda, you rock.
They are still committed to Indycar, Le Mans and FIA World Endurance but is all done from the US while the F1 program was more costly to run and also used engineering resources based in Japan.
The F1 program was by far their most expensive program, and would have easily had the worst ROI. The Honda engine (well, _this_ Honda engine at least) was not going to win a world championship. It was miles behind the Mercedes engine, it didn't even look as good as the Renault one. Even the crippled Ferrari engine was beating one of the Honda teams. The main Red Bull team has got some not bad results from it, but that's obviously down to Verstappen's talent. Because everybody they've put in as his team mate has completely failed to deliver.
Dropping out of F1, and investing in more consumer-facing (ie, profit generating) technology was an obvious cost cutting exercise. Given their obviously ongoing commitment to ICE motorsport and car production, you don't have to be very cynical at all to imagine the green-tech part of the statement was just thrown in there for some free PR (it's hard to imagine this news would have otherwise been post here, for instance).
Also, if anybody's interested in who's going to replace them at Red Bull, the article implies Mercedes is a possibility. It's not, the rules only allow a manufacturer to have 3 engine customer teams (unless they get a special exemption from the FIA). Mercedes already has 3 engine customers. It will almost certainly be back to Renault, because Renault are required by the regulations to give them an engine if they ask for one, and the Ferrari engine is terrible at the moment.
Re: Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
#9Haha Red Bull, back to Renault.
Re: Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead
#10That is awesome! Honda, you rock.
They also just announced that will continue to be an IndyCar supplier for a long while. F1 power units (including the hybrid components) are more efficient than the Indy counterparts. This isn't _actually_ about carbon-free anything... It's about F1 being expensive.
In Europe, environmental issues are seen as important. Not such in the USA.