Honda, BMW plan to return to Formula One
By Russell Williamson
HONDA is expected to announce next month that it will make a return to Formula One motor racing.
The announcement, with a Honda engine likely to appear on the Formula One grid from 2000, is expected to be made by company president Nobuhiko Kawamoto several days before the Tokyo motor show.
The motor show opens on October 24, and the announcement will coincide with an international press visit to the company's new giant Twin Ring motor sport complex in Japan.
Honda withdrew from motor racing's top category in 1992 after it had powered cars driven by world champions such as Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
The company's engines dominated the sport in the late 1980s.
The budget for racing in Formula One is about US$100 million a year, or about three times the amount the company spends supplying engines to a number of IndyCar teams.
Honda will be hoping to supply its engines to a top-class team, such as Williams, McLaren or Benetton.
Next year, the Honda-supported Mugen engine will power the Jordan team.
Technical data from racing this engine is expected to be used as a foundation for Honda's own in-house power plant.
In the recent past, Honda has built turbo V6, V12 and V10 engines for Formula One.
The return to Formula One comes on the back of what has been a very successful IndyCar season for the Japanese carmaker, with Honda driver Alex Zanardi taking the PPG World Driver's Championship.
Zanardi won the championship with a third place at Laguna Seca in California two weeks ago. The podium spot gave him an unbeatable 195 points for the season, 41 points ahead of second placed Gil de Ferran, another Honda driver.
With just 22 points available for the last race in Fontana, California next week, Zanardi is assured of his top spot.
The Honda-powered Target-Chip Ganassi Racing team had further reason to celebrate at Laguna Seca with Zanardi's teammate Jimmy Vasser taking the checkered flag for the first time this year.
Vasser won the championship last year and is currently sitting in third place in the championship.
Despite the late run by Honda-powered cars -- with four of the top five finishers at Laguna Seca running Honda engines -- Mercedes will take the manufacturers championship for the season with eight victories to Honda's six and only next week's race left.
Meanwhile, BMW has also announced its return to Formula One motor racing after 10 years absence.
It has allocated a $50 million budget over the next two years to develop a V10 engine. The engine of the "BMW Williams" will be designed in Munich under Paul Rosche, the technical director of BMW Motorsport Ltd.
Partnering BMW in its return will be Williams Grand Prix Engineering, led by Frank Williams and Patrick Head. The first BMW cars will contest the 2000 season.
Announcing the comeback at the Frankfurt motor show last week, BMW's marketing director, Karl-Heinz Kalbfell said: "Both the timing and the partner for this project have been chosen with great care.
"The high demands of Formula One suit those of a high-tech company like BMW, key aspects of the BMW brand like dynamism and innovation complement the attributes of Formula One.
"The transfer of technical know-how from motor sports over to a road car is a tradition at BMW and will reach new levels through the cooperation with Williams," he said.