The return of McLaren Honda

Honda has confirmed it’ll be returning to Formula One as an engine supplier for McLaren.

The move, which takes effect from the 2015 season onwards, revives the successful McLaren Honda partnership that originally began in 1988 and ran for five years. Not a particularly long period then, but the collaboration did produce four drivers’ and four constructors’ championships.

To put that achievement into perspective, McLaren’s current relationship with Mercedes-Benz is in its eighteenth year, yet so far it has yielded just three drivers’ and one constructors’ titles (with bleak prospect of adding to that tally).

McLaren MP4/5 1989 (Prost) Front
The Honda-powered McLaren MP4/5 that competed in 1989.

As per the revised technical rules that come into force next year, Honda will be responsible for developing a 1.6 litre V6 turbocharged engine together with its associated kinetic energy recovery system.

In a statement, Takanobu Ito, President and CEO of Honda, said: “Ever since its establishment, Honda has been a company which grows by taking on challenges in racing.

“Honda has a long history of advancing our technologies and nurturing our people by participating in the world’s most prestigious automobile racing series. The new F1 regulations with their significant environmental focus will inspire even greater development of our own advanced technologies and this is central to our participation in F1.”

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