FIA should regulate automakers (Honda)

[Honda Porsche fan]

As a Honda fan...

The more I read about Honda's struggles, their restructuring process with their F1 program at Sakura and how far behind they are, I think the FIA needs to make rules changes and regulate the automakers in F1 to protect independent teams.

It's not fair or right for Honda to enter F1, leave F1 and re-enter F1 on their own time and leave customer teams hanging and at the back of the grid for many seasons and using customer teams to develop their engines during the season wasting an entire season, because independent teams (McLaren, Aston Martin, Alpine, Williams) are not owned by automakers (Mercedes, Ferrari) and do not rely on global auto sales for revenue, they get part of their revenue from the Constructors championships standings. They can not afford to be at the back of the grid for the whole season developing engines, that should have been done during off-season testing.

Honda was also dishonest and not forthcoming with Aston Martin about how far behind Honda's F1 engine program was compared to others when Honda stopped developing their engine after the 2021 season and transferring roughly around 70% of their F1 engineers to other parts of Honda. Aston Martin had no idea how bad it was until Lawrence Stroll and Adrian Newey visited Honda's factory in Japan AFTER they signed the contract with Honda.

It looks like for all of 2026 for the entire season Aston Martin will be at the back of the grid developing Honda's engine. It will hurt Aston Martin financially and also limit their chances in the driver's market to land top talent like Max Verstappen who will prefer Mercedes now.

Why Most F1 Teams Lose Money Every Year Despite $23B Valuations
...
https://arthnova.com/f1-teams-lose-mone ... aluations/

[Honda Porsche fan]

Until the FIA implements new rules and regulations on automakers on how they enter F1 and leave F1 this cycle will continue with companies like Honda that come in and out.

You can't make/force an automaker to come into F1 or stay in F1 but, you can regulate them and set in place specific rules they have to abide by.

The FIA can set in place specific performance goals the automakers have to meet before they are allowed to race on the grid in Australia...

For example, an automaker has to have their engine in the back of a race car being tested on the race track a full year before they officially race on the grid in Australia. They can not go into a season with an undeveloped engine.

They have to complete a full race distance during testing before they can race in Australia.

Their lap times have to be within a certain number of seconds of the top 5 finishers of the previous season.

An automaker competing in F1 has to give their customer teams 2 full years notice ahead of time if they decide to pull out of F1.

There needs to be more testing time on the race track as well. FIA should modify the budget (cost cap) and increase the budget specifically to allow for more on track testing.

Automakers have to financially compensate teams if they do not put forth a competitive engine that hurts teams in the Constructors Championship as independent teams rely on revenue from the Constructors Championship.




Honda would not be this far behind or, they would not have been allowed to do this to Aston Martin if the FIA had rules in place regulating these automakers and making sure their engine was tested on the race track a year before they are allowed to race in Australia.

Automakers should not be allowed to force an independent customer team to waste their entire season to develop a new engine as independent teams rely a lot on the earnings in the Constructors championship for revenue.

[Honda Porsche fan]

Honda should be held financially liable and pay for any debt that Aston Martin takes on till then. Honda should issue a public statement apologizing to Aston Martin.

Honda does this because they are entitled and think they can get away with doing this, come and go when they please, leave customer teams hanging, then re-enter F1 with a bad engine that puts customer teams at the back of the grid waiting an entire season or 3 to 4 seasons for a competitive engine.

FIA needs to change the rules and hold automakers (Honda, BMW, Toyota) accountable to the smaller customer teams they supply engines to and not be able to use F1 as some short term gimmick.

These European based teams that design the aero/chassis employ 400 to 1000+ people and have to pay their salaries. Large corporate multi-national automakers are not loyal to them and show a disregard to the customer teams.

This would not be such a big problem if Honda built it all 100% in-house in Japan at the Honda Japanese factory building their own chassis/aero/suspension/gearbox/engine and they take all the profit and all the debt on themselves but, they don't build it all in Japan, they supply engines to EU teams who are dependent on Honda.

I hope Honda makes big gains in performance for 2026.

[Greg Locock]

I heard a strong rumour that in japanese car companies the talent goes into manufacturing, the also rans into product development, and the rest get shunted into special projects like racing. Of course racing people like to believe otherwise.

[Honda Porsche fan]

I heard a strong rumour that in japanese car companies the talent goes into manufacturing, the also rans into product development, and the rest get shunted into special projects like racing. Of course racing people like to believe otherwise.

That could possibly be true.

From what I read and heard is that Honda uses racing as education for their young workers, they learn from racing and after 5 to 10 years they are then sent to other parts of Honda taking with them the knowledge they learned from racing.

That's one of the reasons why Honda has large turnover in their racing program. Honda is putting their company first which part of me understands but, part of me also feels they have a responsibility to the customer teams they supply engines to.

Honda is a multi-national automaker just like Mercedes, they can operate their F1 program more like Mercedes if they really wanted to and not put themselves or the teams they supply engines to in these holes at the back of the grid.

I think Honda needs to buy and run their own F1 team like Mercedes and Ferrari do. They just can't make the same mistakes they made when they owned BAR.

[Honda Porsche fan]

To be fair to the automakers including Honda, the automakers should not be told or forced by teams' designers on how to build the engine...

For example, McLaren's request/demand for a "size zero" engine to Honda, which did not work.

There are also reports that Adrian Newey demanded Honda build an engine with a lower crankshaft which puts more stress on the engine block.

Mercedes builds a one size fits all engine for the factory Pentronas team and all customer teams. All customer teams build their chassis around the Mercedes engine and McLaren was able to win the drive's title and constructor's title as a customer non-factory team by building their chassis around the engine, no special demands or requests.

Let the automakers build the best engine they can build and give them enough time to do it.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

I think Honda needs to buy and run their own F1 team like Mercedes and Ferrari do. They just can't make the same mistakes they made when they owned BAR.

Because that worked so well in 2007 & 2008!!

[Waz]

Until the FIA implements new rules and regulations on automakers on how they enter F1 and leave F1 this cycle will continue with companies like Honda that come in and out.

You can't make/force an automaker to come into F1 or stay in F1 but, you can regulate them and set in place specific rules they have to abide by.

The FIA can set in place specific performance goals the automakers have to meet before they are allowed to race on the grid in Australia...

For example, an automaker has to have their engine in the back of a race car being tested on the race track a full year before they officially race on the grid in Australia. They can not go into a season with an undeveloped engine.

They have to complete a full race distance during testing before they can race in Australia.

Their lap times have to be within a certain number of seconds of the top 5 finishers of the previous season.

An automaker competing in F1 has to give their customer teams 2 full years notice ahead of time if they decide to pull out of F1.

There needs to be more testing time on the race track as well. FIA should modify the budget (cost cap) and increase the budget specifically to allow for more on track testing.

Automakers have to financially compensate teams if they do not put forth a competitive engine that hurts teams in the Constructors Championship as independent teams rely on revenue from the Constructors Championship.




Honda would not be this far behind or, they would not have been allowed to do this to Aston Martin if the FIA had rules in place regulating these automakers and making sure their engine was tested on the race track a year before they are allowed to race in Australia.

Automakers should not be allowed to force an independent customer team to waste their entire season to develop a new engine as independent teams rely a lot on the earnings in the Constructors championship for revenue.

There's a lot here that makes sense, great post. If some of the ideas here were in place, the McHonda debacle would have been avoided too.

Or that should have been the catalyst for these changes to be made.

[Martin Keene]

To be fair to the automakers including Honda, the automakers should not be told or forced by teams' designers on how to build the engine...

For example, McLaren's request/demand for a "size zero" engine to Honda, which did not work.

There are also reports that Adrian Newey demanded Honda build an engine with a lower crankshaft which puts more stress on the engine block.

Mercedes builds a one size fits all engine for the factory Pentronas team and all customer teams. All customer teams build their chassis around the Mercedes engine and McLaren was able to win the drive's title and constructor's title as a customer non-factory team by building their chassis around the engine, no special demands or requests.

Let the automakers build the best engine they can build and give them enough time to do it.

The crankshaft comment is internet tripe and nothing more. The crankshaft height is mandated by the regulations and at a height of Z=90, is at a height that was easily achievable about 20 years ago. To suggest Honda started at anything other than Z=90 is ridiculous.