In 2000, the year Honda returned to F1 after an eight-year hiatus, good results were harder to achieve than expected. Although BAR had moved up to fifth in the previous year’s constructors’ standings, it was no match for the championship contenders Ferrari and McLaren, and failed to win a single race, let alone stand on the podium. For Honda, which had achieved glory in its second F1 era, F1 had become more difficult than expected.

During the seven years of Honda’s hiatus, F1 had evolved considerably. The engine Honda used in 1992 was a V12, with a maximum speed of 14,400rpm. By 2000, all of Honda’s rivals had introduced V10 engines that could reach 17,000rpm. Although Honda was able to match higher maximum rpm with its RA000E in 2000, its rivals’ engines were able to race without the durability and reliability issues Honda was experiencing.

For 2001, in its second year back to F1, Honda made two major changes to its F1 organization. First, Managing Director Takefumi Hosaka, in charge of the team in 2000, retired, and was replaced by Technical Director Kazutoshi Nishizawa. The structure of Honda's Tochigi R&D, which supported Nishizawa from Japan, was also changed. Toru Ogawa, Honda R&D’s Executive Chief Engineer, took over as the new head of race technology development.

The 2001 RA001E, developed under Ogawa, inherited the basic framework of the previous year’s RA000E, an aluminum block V10 with an overall length of 588mm and a V-bank angle of 80 degrees. Since competing manufacturers had already introduced engines weighing less than 100kg, further weight reduction was urgently needed. Every part of the RA000E, including auxiliary components, were thoroughly reviewed to shave off any extra weight, resulting in the RA001E with a total weight of 108kg, 3.7 kg lighter than the RA000E. Its maximum speed was also raised, albeit slightly, to 17,300rpm.

The second change was the engine supply system. Honda, which had returned to F1 in 2000 with BAR as its partner, began to supply engines to Jordan as well, creating a two-team system. Honda supplied identical engines to both teams, but unlike BAR, Jordan had a high-exhaust layout, similar to that of Ferrari, requiring the exhaust pipes to be tailored to each team. In addition, Jordan used an in-house developed 7-speed gearbox, compared to BAR’s 6-speed, requiring drivability adjustments according to gear ratios. This increased the work required by Honda more than a simple increase in engines produced.

That year, BAR made the same high-exhaust modifications as Jordan in Round 5, Spain, resulting in Jacques Villeneuve finishing third. This was Honda’s first podium since its return to F1. Villeneuve also finished third in Round 12, Germany, but along with teammate Olivier Panis, he was often plagued by a lack of reliability in the car. BAR was sixth in the constructors’ championship with only 17 points, falling short of the previous year’s 20 points. Jordan also had a difficult season in terms of reliability, but finished fifth in the constructors’ standings with nine points-finishes, six more than BAR, and two more constructors’ points.