02/10/2020
NEWS STORY
As the F1 world recovers from today's shock news and wonders precisely 'what happens next', Honda president, Takahiro Hachigo says the Japanese manufacturer intends leaving the sport on a high and is targeting the 2021 title.
While its initial return with McLaren is best forgotten, since partnering with Toro Rosso and then Red Bull, Honda has taken huge strides forward.
However, with an eye on the automotive market that funds its F1 activity, the Japanese giant has basically become the first current manufacturer to make a move that at some point the likes of Mercedes and Renault are going to have to address, the end of the internal combustion engine.
Though it has now served notice to the sport, Hachigo insists that his company will battle for the 2021 title and to that end will continue developing its new power unit.
"We still have seven races this year and then another season," he told reporters at today's press conference to mark the announcement, "and we will try and do our very best to try and win.
"For next year we will launch our new power unit," he continued, "so that together with Red Bull we are going to aim for the season championship.
"For the initial three years we struggled very much," he admitted, "but we overcame that and so far claimed five victories, so I think to some extent we left a good track record with our wins.
"Continuing participation in F1 and enhancing brand capability was one choice and the other one is to lean towards and pour resources into carbon neutrality in 2050," he said of the decision to withdraw from the sport. "It was thoroughly discussed internally within management and through thorough discussions we reached this conclusion.
"F1 is one challenge, we have been able to win, that was one of the targets, we do have seven races and next year so we want to get good results as well."