HONDA The Power of Dreams

Honda returned to F1 in the 2000 season as an engine supplier for the BAR team, and became more involved in the development of the car, aiming to improve competitiveness. This move was a trend in the F1 world during Honda’s third F1 era, as automakers and brands began to enter teams and design chassis bearing their own names. As the battle between the manufacturers intensified, Honda also shifted to a full factory team, the Honda Racing F1 Team (HRF1), from 2006. This was the first “all-Honda” team since its first F1 era (1964-68). The long-awaited first victory in its third F1 era came at the 2006 Hungarian GP, marking the third win for a Honda chassis, and the 72nd win for Honda engines in total.

The following year, Honda unleashed the RA107 for the 2007 season. The engine was the 2.4L V8 naturally-aspirated RA807E.

The most distinctive feature of RA107 is its livery. The earth is floating on the black body of the RA107, and in a sense, this livery was a grand challenge that could be called the “second livery revolution” in F1 in 40 years.

The first livery revolution in F1 was achieved in 1968 by Colin Chapman (founder of Lotus, which competed in F1 from 1958 to 1994), who introduced the concept of sponsor colors to the previously national color schemes. Since then, the influx of sponsors, especially tobacco brands, increased, and it was well known that F1 cars had come to be known as “billboards on wheels.”

However, times changed, and restrictions on tobacco brand advertising became stronger. Many teams sought new sponsors in other industries, but Honda took the challenge of breaking out of the norm with a novel idea.

With the understanding and cooperation of its sponsors, Honda removed its sponsors’ colors and logos from the car and painted the RA107 in earthy colors with planet Earth as its motif. The “Earth Dream” project aimed to appeal the importance and earnestness of environmental issues and Honda’s serious approach to these issues through F1, and to gain a large number of supporters. It was a project with social significance that demonstrated Honda’s traditional challenging spirit in areas other than technology.

In terms of the car, although 2007 was the first season following Honda’s first race win of its third F1 era, the company made aggressive changes to its concept, mainly in terms of aerodynamics. The aerodynamics of the BAR through HRF1 had often been described as “conservative,” but the RA107, like its livery concept, was described as “moving in a very challenging direction.” The Honda team was not necessarily satisfied with the performance of the previous year’s car.

In fact, despite its race win, Honda was not at its best in 2006. In the second half of the season, Honda had consistently achieved top results, including its win at the Hungarian GP, but in terms of overall season success, it was not as good as in 2004, when BAR Honda finished second in the constructors’ standings (it was fourth in 2006). This was one of the reasons why the team knew that a major change was needed for 2007 (although development of the RA107 had already started before the 2006 Hungarian GP).

The technical director Jeff Willis essentially left the team in the middle of 2006, and Honda’s technical team spread responsibilities over the entire team, including Shuhei Nakamoto, Jackie Eckert, Ottmar Sachnauer, Jorg Zander, and Loïc Bigois (in charge of aerodynamics), were involved in the development of the car. The new car was created in conjunction with the establishment of this new structure. The 2007 drivers were the same as the previous year, with Jenson Button, who had made the long-awaited list of GP winners, and Rubens Barrichello, who had won a total of nine races during his Ferrari career. Christian Klien was the test driver.

The highly anticipated RA107, however, had not improved since the pre-season test. The aggressive aerodynamic trials were not working well, but an even bigger factor was the change in the tire brand. With Michelin’s withdrawal, F1 from 2007 to 2010 would be solely run on Bridgestone (BS) tires, but teams like Honda, which had been on Michelin tires in 2006, faced with more challenges than the teams that had used BS the previous year.

The RA107, or more importantly, Honda in 2007, faced many fundamental changes in aerodynamics, tires, team structure, and sponsor-related circumstances. The engine, too, was in its second season since the 2.4-liter regulations came into effect, and the team was faced with new challenges on many fronts. At the same time, it was a path that needed to be followed to become a team that could consistently win, and also a “situation” that needed to be addressed in order to realize the aspiration of creating new value in the F1 world through its second livery revolution. Symbolically, the RA107 was truly a Honda car.

However, the path to realizing this heroic and noble ideal was steeper than expected. Once the season began, Honda was faced with an even harsher reality. The Super Aguri SA07 cars powered by the same RA807E engine were more competitive. Takuma Sato was in Q3 in the opening round in Australia, finished eighth in Round 4, Spain, and sixth in Round 6, Canada, while Honda’s performance in both qualifying and the race were consistently in the double-digits. The SA07 was based on the RA106, and Super Aguri’s progress had been predicted to some extent, but the extent of Honda’s slump went beyond what had been imagined from its slow start at the time of testing.

Honda’s first points of 2007 came in Round 8, France, where Button finished eighth (points were awarded to the top 8). In Round 13 Italy, Button also finished eighth, but by the end of the Japanese GP (Fuji Speedway), the 15th of 17 rounds, Honda’s constructors’ points stood at 2 and its ranking was eighth. Of the 11 teams competing, McLaren was stripped of all of its points as it was found to have been involved in the espionage scandal, and was already ranked 11th in the standings. Super Aguri (4 points) was in seventh place, still above Honda, despite a slowdown in the second half of the season.

In Round 16, China, Button took advantage of the rain to finish fifth. With these four points, Honda was able move above Super Aguri’s position, and save face as an automaker. However, Toro Rosso, which had scored no points up to that point, surged to fourth and sixth in the same race, earning a total of eight points, and Honda’s constructors’ standings remained unchanged at eighth place. There was no movement in the final round, and the HRF1 camp finished the year with its lowest annual ranking since the BAR era in 2002. Button finished 15th in the drivers’ standings, and Barrichello unexpectedly finished zero points finishes in his first scoreless season since his F1 debut in 1993.

There was no doubt that the RA107 was a failure in terms of results and performance. However, there was the determination and resolve to reach the top, as well as the challenge that only Honda, which was one of the first to seriously address environmental issues, could have taken on. The Earth Dream Project was terminated in 2008 along with Honda’s third F1 era. However, in light of the growing importance of environmental issues, the true value of the Earth Dream Project and the Honda RA107, the first F1 car to carry the project as its livery, may one day be recognized. The Honda RA107 was, a great pioneer.