The growing fame that Formula 1 experienced towards the end of the 1990s had by then reached the far eastern borders of our hemisphere and could not go unnoticed by the leading Japanese manufacturer of the time, Honda Motor Co. Ltd.
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| HONDA RA099, Jos Verstappen Jerez de la Frontera, private tests |
As early as the second half of the 1960s, Honda Racing had been present in Formula 1 as a constructor, following an attempted partnership with Colin Chapman’s Lotus, which was suddenly interrupted by the British engineer in 1964. It was then that Soichiro Honda decided to entrust Engineer Yoshio Nakamura with the design of a single-seater equipped with a phenomenal, for its time, V12 engine. Thanks to the quality of the Japanese engine, in 1965 Honda even achieved a victory in Mexico with Richie Ginther driving the RA272. After a disappointing 1966 season with the renewed RA273, in 1967 Honda entrusted Lola with the construction of the RA300 chassis and hired John Surtees as a driver, who managed to secure a second victory for the Land of the Rising Sun at the Monza circuit. The 1968 season, with the RA301 evolution, marked Honda’s last year as a constructor, following the decision at the end of the season to withdraw from Formula 1 after its driver Jo Schlesser suffered a fatal accident at the wheel of the RA302 prototype during the French Grand Prix in Rouen.
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| HONDA RA099, Jos Verstappen Jerez de la Frontera, private tests |
It would be 15 years before Honda Racing returned to Formula One as an engine supplier with its 1,477 cc RA-163 turbo V6 for the Spirit team, before going on to forge highly successful partnerships with Williams (1984–1987) and McLaren (1988–1992), as well as less fruitful collaborations with Lotus (1987–1989) and Tyrrell (1991). After leaving Formula 1 as an engine supplier in 1992, the company worked with Mugen Motorsports, a firm founded in 1973 by Hirotoshi Honda, son of Soichiro, to supply engines to teams such as Lotus, Prost, and Jordan, without being directly involved. During this period, Honda Racing also funded an unofficial project to develop Formula 1 cars using engines with previous specifications. After several conceptual projects, in 1998 Honda began to seriously consider a return to Formula 1 as a constructor and hired none other than Harvey Postlethwaite, unemployed following the disappearance of Tyrrell that same year, to design a fully functional test car in preparation for a debut in the premier class the following season.
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| HONDA RA099, Jos Verstappen Jerez de la Frontera, private tests |
The RA099, built by the Italian company Dallara and fitted with the Mugen-Honda MF 310HD engine, was tested on January 23 and 24, 1999, at the Spanish circuit of Jerez by Dutch driver Jos Verstappen with decent success. Although the project was very conventional and lacked any particular technical or aerodynamic innovations, the car appeared promising, with Verstappen posting lap times only slightly slower than those of more established teams on the same track. However, the project was indefinitely halted following Postlethwaite’s death from a heart attack at the Catalunya-Barcelona circuit during one of the private tests, and the Dallara chassis were shelved.
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| HONDA RA099, Jos Verstappen Jerez de la Frontera, private tests |
Honda Racing nonetheless continued the development of its own engine, the V10 RA000E, returning as an engine supplier in 2000 with the BAR and Jordan teams, continuing with the former with some success until the mid-2000s. As the partnership with BAR grew, Honda’s technical contribution to the British team increased steadily, and eventually, following the ban on tobacco advertising in Formula 1, Honda Racing acquired BAR outright, re-entering Formula 1 as a full constructor until 2008. Of the six Dallara RA099 chassis built, only four were actually used on track, and currently, the whereabouts of only one of these single-seaters, the RA099-03, are known, it is on display at the Honda Collection Hall at Japan’s Twin Ring Motegi circuit, which is owned by Honda itself.
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