Team · 1964–2008 · Japan
Honda Racing F1 Team
Honda was the first Japanese car maker in Formula 1: in 1964 it lined up with a car and an engine of its own design. Richie Ginther took the first win in Mexico in 1965, at the last race of the 1.5-litre formula, and in 1967 John Surtees won at Monza, beating Jack Brabham by two tenths of a second. In 1968 Jo Schlesser was killed in a Honda in France, and after that season the factory withdrew.
At the end of 2005 Honda bought BAR and from 2006 raced as a works team again. Jenson Button won the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix from fourteenth on the grid — Honda’s only win in its second spell. In December 2008, amid the financial crisis, Honda pulled out, and its team was bought by team principal Ross Brawn — and so Brawn was born.