I remember celebrating with the development team when the engine I had been working on since my second year in Honda won the championship. It was a joyful moment.

Even if others wondered why we were so confident despite lack of experience, we didn’t fear failure and boldly took on reckless challenges. There was an atmosphere of doing whatever it took to succeed. 

Honda started as a small company in a ruined, post-war Japan, making motorcycles by attaching engines for wireless radios attached to bicycles. In 1959, at a time when the country was still struggling to recover from the war, they entered the Isle of Man TT races, which was considered the pinnacle of motorcycle racing at the time. It was a daring challenge, but it claimed its first victory just two years later.

When Honda decided to enter Formula 1 in 1962, we hadn’t even sold a single car yet, but won our first F1 race in 1965. In the early 1970s, when the U.S. enacted the Muskie Act*², a strict air pollution control legislation, even major manufacturers gave up on meeting the regulations, but Honda said it could do it, and developed the CVCC*³.

So back then, Honda was full of eccentric pioneers who had achieved seemingly impossible feats. I was one of those eccentric individuals.

When Honda returned to F1 in 1983, we modified a 2-liter V6 turbo engine originally developed for F2. I think the goal was to keep development costs and man-hours down, but this engine was not suitable for F1.

At the time, my job was to test the engine and identify the causes of problems. Although I was a newcomer who had just joined the company, I realized in my testing that the engine was not good enough, and I even confronted my boss. Looking back now, I must have been a troublesome subordinate.

After that, I worked with the design team to improve the engine and enhance its competitiveness. However, the engine initially broke down frequently. I wondered if we could win races with this engine, but starting around 1985, we began to win.

I was a cocky young man in my mid-20s, confident that I was the one to make an innovative engine. In F1, the top category where renowned sports car manufacturers and European giants were fiercely competing, there was no way we could win by copying others. I felt that we had to believe in our technical capabilities and pursue perfection more than anyone else to win, and worked tirelessly on engine development.

In the end, winning led to a deserved confidence and experience that we created the “best engine in the world” for F1, and Honda and I possess the world’s best technology. That success allowed me to face challenges later while maintaining the mindset that we would overcome any challenge or barrier. 

In 1986, I moved to the mass-production vehicle development, but even there, I never thought we would lose to other companies. The fact that we had become the best in the world in F1, where technical prowess is fiercely developed, became a source of strength for me. Perhaps the victory in F1 also became one of the factors that contributed to Honda’s corporate culture of challenge and pride in its technical capabilities.

After moving to mass-production vehicle development, I was involved in the development of the V6 engine for the second-generation Legend and the engine for the first-generation Odyssey, which was released in 1994. The first-generation Odyssey was especially a new challenge for Honda.

In Japan at the time, when people thought of spacious cars, station wagons and 1-box wagons were mainstream, and the term “minivan” was virtually unknown. However, as Japan became more affluent and the number of families with children increased, we believed we needed a new kind of family car. We proposed to upper management the development of a minivan that could be produced at an existing factory (Sayama Factory).

Upper management responded, “Why not sedans for family customers?” However, our development team, driven by a sense of urgency that Honda had no future without a vehicle like the Odyssey, persisted in our arguments and eventually secured approval for the project. The first-generation Odyssey went on to become a huge hit and transformed Japan’s automotive society.

Later, when I was in charge of development, the concept for the first-generation N-BOX, released in 2011, was also formed after a lot of challenges. We brought the minivan philosophy from the Odyssey to the kei car (small segment in Japan) and aimed to create the most convenient car for raising children. It was like a “mini minivan.” This model also became a hit and has become an important model that supports Honda to this day.

At that time, kei cars already accounted for about 30% of new car sales. Due to the global financial crisis and the strong yen, exports were difficult, so we had no choice but to focus on selling cars domestically, specifically kei cars, to boost sales. However, Honda had few models that could compete with other automakers in terms of cost and price, leading to a situation where we couldn’t sell or make a profit. In these circumstances, I was tasked with developing a new kei car.

Kei cars have constraints on body size and engine displacement, as is the case with F1 regulations. Within these constraints, the mindset that we could not be the best in the world without ideas and technologies that others had not imagined is also the same as in F1. Needless to say, we wanted to be the best in this segment as well.

To create a competitive car, we believed it was necessary to incorporate technology that others could not replicate even after several years of effort. Each automaker has its own philosophy and technology, and Honda has its own way of doing things. Once we thought we wanted to sell cars like others did, and wanted to be like them, we wouldn’t be able to create something better, and we would lose. I felt that would make Honda’s existence meaningless.

We therefore decided to utilize Honda’s unique technologies to create a kei car with an unrivalled spacious interior. That was the first-generation N-BOX. The new-concept engine prioritizing combustion efficiency and the unique center fuel tank layout enabled us to achieve an unmatched level of spaciousness, which I believe was the reason the N-BOX sold well. To be honest, there was a strong sense of crisis that if this kei car didn't sell, Honda would be in trouble, so I was truly relieved when it was well-received by customers.

One of the reasons I find F1 remarkable from an engineer’s perspective is that it does not have a system like BoP (Balance of Performance), which imposes handicaps to prevent teams from dominating. BoP is adopted in races like SUPER GT and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where winning cars have additional weights or their horsepower is restricted to reduce performance differences with other cars, to make the race more exciting. Those races are also entertaining and attractive as events.

But, as an engineer, I personally believe that even if a team wins a race where BoP is implemented, it cannot be said that they won through pure technical superiority. F1 is one of the few “fair” categories where fundamental technology determines whether you win or lose, and I believe Honda’s continued challenge in F1 holds significance as a place to cultivate absolute confidence and skills among engineers. Now that Honda has decided to return to F1 in 2026, I hope they will continue to keep on winning.

I hope Honda will continue to be a company that grasps the needs that arise as the world changes and uses technology to solve problems based on dreams such as “I wish we could do this.” F1 development should help nurture people who continue to take on challenges with this spirit.

The results of F1 development members competing with the world may likely be reflected in their achievements 10 or 20 years from now. When they become leaders and strive to achieve in mass-production vehicle or new areas development, I believe their experience in F1 will be invaluable. I hope that they will rise to lead Honda during tough times, and contribute to further corporate growth.