Feature: Honda Still Waiting for a Point

Honda engines have not been dominant in Formula One since the boss threw spanners in the works. But, apocryphal or not, founder Soichiro Honda's literal spanner-throwing at works engineers who incurred his wrath also coincided with the sort of results that the carmaker has lacked recently.

At Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, the Honda-powered Jordan and British American Racing cars arrive with the unenviable status as the only ones yet to score points after five rounds of the season. It is not an easy time for any of the drivers.

"I'm sure they'll get there but there is a different way of working since Mr. Honda died," Jordan's Japanese rookie Takuma Sato recently told F1 Racing magazine when asked about the situation at Honda. "He used to throw spanners at engineers if they made a mistake and I don't think that happens now."

The engines were the class of the grid in Soichiro's day but he has been dead for a decade and Honda have struggled to get up to speed since returning as an engine supplier in 2000, after eight years out.

The carmaker has been involved in Formula One off and on for nearly 40 years, notably powering Williams to Constructors' Championship titles in 1986 and 1987 and McLaren to four Championships in a row from 1988 to 1991. In 1988 alone, McLaren won a record 15 out of 16 races with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

First Win

Soichiro Honda, who was wholeheartedly behind the Formula One programme, took the carmaker into the sport with its own chassis and engine in 1964. Richie Ginther provided the first win in Mexico in 1965 and former Champion John Surtees drove for them, winning in Italy in 1967, before Honda decided to pull out at the end of 1968.

They returned as an engine partner only in 1984 and, after Soichiro died in 1991, quit in 1992.

Honda then decided in the late 1990s to take the plunge again and compete with their own works team, but that decision was abandoned following the death in 1999 of Harvey Postlethwaite, the ace designer leading the programme.

Instead, Honda linked up with BAR and added Jordan, who had used Mugen-Honda engines before then, last season.

The results speak for themselves.

In two years with Honda, BAR have yet to finish a race higher than third place while victories for Jordan - who celebrated three wins with Mugen tuned Honda engines in 1998 and 1999 - look a long way off.

The team has not had a podium since 2000 and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella has suffered repeated engine problems this year, finishing one race in five.

The lack of results has led to increasing speculation in the paddock that Honda will focus on one team from the end of the season.

"I don't know if that is happening," entrepreneurial team boss Eddie Jordan, whose team are tipped to lose out to BAR, told reporters at the last Spanish Grand Prix. "If it is then it's news to me. We are partners but everyone tells me that they are going to do a runner. If they are, I have no experience of that."

Bite the Bullet

There would be solid reasons for Honda to concentrate their efforts, not least the fact that rivals Toyota have entered the sport with their own engine and chassis.

That matches Ferrari and Renault, who also do everything in-house, and Ford-owned Jaguar who use an engine built by the company's Cosworth operation.

"I think Honda really need to bite the bullet and become as one with a team if they are going to achieve the success they had in the past," said Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn before the Spanish Grand Prix.

"It's clear that successful teams in Formula One - and Renault have taken that route now - have to be one entity. They have to be as one, the chassis and the engine. If there was an area that you could criticise of their approach, it's the fact that they still look like an engine supplier as opposed to a partner.

"In my view they need to get together with a team and become one entity," added Brawn.

His words were echoed by BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen, whose firm supplies engines to Williams and who has regularly opposed suggestions that the engine manufacturers should provide more than one team.

"You have to concentrate your efforts on to one target and make sure your engine sits optimally with the car," he said. "If you have two teams you have no chance to succeed."