McLaren, Powered By Honda

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Thursday-afternoon press conferences at Mitsubishi and Nissan remained mostly deserted as the Fourth Estate congregated at Honda to hear the not so secret news that Honda will return to F1. I didn’t go because I thought we don’t cover F1. When I remembered that we now do, it was too late. Did I mention that running around Tokyo covering the auto beat is a world of tough decisions?

Honda had exited the sport in 2009 after what the BBC calls “years of poor results with its own team.” Of course, the global meltdown had something to do with it also. Honda will be back as an engine supplier to the McLaren team, or, as its statement says, “Honda will be in charge of the development, manufacture and supply of the power unit, including the engine and energy recovery system, while McLaren will be in charge of the development and manufacture of the chassis, as well as the management of the new team, McLaren Honda.”

Formula One will introduce a blown 1.6 liter V6 engine with energy recovery systems, a move that fits into carmakers’ plans of disengaging from 8 cylinder engines.

With Nissan drinking Red Bull and Honda powering McLaren, all eyes are on Toyota. There are off and on rumors that they might be back as Lexus, but nothing official yet.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Stuntmonkey Stuntmonkey on May 16, 2013

    Massa to Mclaren makes sense to me, Honda would love the Brazillian connection. Depends on how much further Macca is going to struggle this year

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    • SomeGuy SomeGuy on May 16, 2013

      @juicy sushi I doubt that'd happen but I would agree. People keep screaming for guys like Webber to put one to Seb, but frankly, Mark isn't as good, nor is Massa. Massa would NOT be competitive in the McLaren.

  • MBella MBella on May 16, 2013

    It seems that this would be an ironic full circle twist for Button. Left Brawn, the former Honda team for McLaren and now Honda will follow.

  • Charliej Charliej on May 16, 2013

    The reason that Honda gave for racing, was that it was to train engineers. Young engineers get shuttled into the racing team, where they learn to make fast and accurate decisions. A number of Honda CEOs came from the racing program.

  • Jaje Jaje on May 17, 2013

    1988 when Honda joined with McLaren they had a 1.5 v6 turbo and then went on to win 4 straight championships with Senna & Prost. Honda does sorely need to figure out how to make a good forced inducted production engine as they are lagging behind the curve and their workhorse sohc 3.5 liter v6 used in almost every car they make (except their hybrids, Fit and Civic and the other copies built off those platforms) is simply not brilliant enough to get the job done.

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