Honda's F1 boss explains decision to stay in Indycar
Oct.15 - Honda has defended its decision to pull out of Formula 1 whilst at the same time extending its commitment to the Indycar series.
The Japanese manufacturer cited its push for more future-oriented technology as a key reason for pulling out of F1.
But at the very same time, Honda and Indycar announced that their collaboration has been extended "well into the end of the decade", with that category switching to F1-like 2.4 litre V6 hybrid engines in 2023.
Honda's F1 chief Masashi Yamamoto denied that the move indicates that Formula 1 is now out of touch with the direction of the automotive industry.
"Given that Honda has customers all over the world, there was the need for us to move our top engineers at an earlier stage to working on future carbon-neutral products," he said.
"From our point of view, our work in Indycar is run by HPD (Honda Performance Development) which is an independent part of Honda within America.
"In this case (F1), a lot of our R and D stuff is based in Japan, which meant that for our future work we had to allocate engineers," Yamamoto added.
Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda's F1 race debut for 2021 appears to be on track, with the Honda-backed Formula 2 driver having a seat fitted at AlphaTauri this week.
The Red Bull-owned team announced that Tsunoda, currently third overall in F2, will test a two-year old car after next month's Imola race.
That should qualify him for a super licence, with a Friday practice outing then possible in the following weeks.
"He has the natural speed, he has the skills, and the rest - we will see," Tost said.
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
F1 has become so costly it has to do something to keep all the rest of the "Manufactures " in it, 1 day a lot of them will just pull out and we will not have a race to watch.....
Indycar is a lot greener than F1 in that it's engines run on alcohol with no hydrocarbon footprint and much more competitive. F1 is merely virtue signaling with gasoline hybrids. I love them both but I see why Honda is changing.
Its all about the money money
It is easier for Honda to be a big dog in a country with no real racing to speak of
Actually it’s F1 that has little real racing because we know almost certainly who the winner is going to be at each race. In Indycar we never know which driver or engine manufacturer will win.
Yes, but IndyCar is boring. Nobody cares who wins.
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.