Honda F1 back in 2026? ‘Interest from various parties’

Honda, as has often happened in the past, withdrew from Formula 1 after a highlight. After Max Verstappen won his first world title with Honda in cow letters on his car, the Japanese largely left the sport for what it is. In 2020, a year earlier, Honda announced its departure, stating that Formula 1 no longer suited the company’s greener ambitions. Saying goodbye completely, however, turned out to be a step too far; At the beginning of last year it turned out that behind the scenes Honda will continue to be the engine supplier of Red Bull and AlphaTauri in the coming years and since last autumn Honda has also been on the cars again.

Because the engine regulations are frozen until 2026, there is no longer really an engine race between the different manufacturers at the moment, so Honda is not really busy with it either. That will be the case again from 2026 with the arrival of new regulations and Honda seems to find those new regulations interesting enough for another full-time F1 program. “We are curious where Formula 1 is going, what it will look like with more electrification. We like to be close to the fire and that’s why we decided to sign up as an engine manufacturer,” said Honda Racing Corporation CEO Koji Watanabe. according to Motorsport.com.

That does not automatically mean that Honda will also be there in 2026. Nevertheless, there is a good chance that it will come to that. Watanabe says that there is already interest: “After we registered, several F1 teams contacted us. We do not yet have any concrete plans about whether or not to return to Formula 1, for now we just want to enter F1 keep an eye on it and see which way it goes.” In any case, a new deal with Red Bull is no longer possible, that will be done with Ford from 2026. Sister team AlphaTauri is also involved in that deal. Potential newcomer Andretti-Cadillac already has an appointment with Alpine.