The growing fame that Formula 1 experienced at the end of the 90s has now reached the easternmost borders of our hemisphere and cannot leave the largest Japanese manufacturer of the time, Honda Motor Co. Ltd., indifferent.
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| HONDA RA099, Jos Verstappen Jerez de la Frontera, private tests |
Already in the second half of the 60s, Honda Racing was present in Formula One as a manufacturer, after an attempted partnership with Colin Chapman's Lotus suddenly interrupted by the English technician in '64. It was then that Soichiro Honda decided to entrust Engineer Yoshio Nakamura with the design of a single-seater equipped with a phenomenal, for the time, V12 engine. Thanks to the quality of the Japanese engine, Honda even obtained a victory in Mexico in '65 with Richie Ginther at the wheel of the RA272 single-seater. After a disappointing '66 with the renewed RA273 in '67 Honda entrusted Lola with the construction of the RA300 chassis and hired John Surtees as a driver, who was able to obtain the second success for the house of the rising sun on the Monza circuit. The '68 Championship with the RA301 evolution, was the last year of Honda's presence as a constructor, given the decision taken at the end of the season to withdraw from Formula 1, matured after its driver Jo Schlesser had a fatal accident at the wheel of the prototype RA302 during the 1968 French Grand Prix in Rouen.
HONDA RA099, Jos Verstappen
Jerez de la Frontera, private tests
It was not until 15 years later that Honda Racing re-entered Formula One as an engine supplier with its RA-163 1477cc turbocharged V6 for the Spirit team before moving on to highly successful partnerships with Williams (1984–87) and McLaren (1988–92) and less successful sporting partnerships with Lotus (1987–89) and Tyrrell (1991). After leaving Formula One as an engine supplier in 1992, the company worked with Mugen Motorsports, a company founded in 1973 by Hiritoshi Honda, son of Soichiro, to supply engines to the likes of Lotus, Prost and Jordan, without being directly involved. During this period, however, an unofficial project to develop Formula One cars using earlier specification engines was also funded by Honda Racing. After a series of fanciful designs, 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 demise of Tyrrell that same year, to design a fully functioning test car to be used in preparation for the team's debut in the top series the following season.
HONDA RA099, Jos Verstappen
Jerez de la Frontera, private tests
The RA099, built by the Italian company Dallara and equipped with the Mugen-Honda MF 310HD engine, was tested on the track on 23 and 24 January 1999 on the Spanish circuit of Jerez in the hands of Dutchman Jos Verstappen with a fair amount of success. Despite the project being very conventional and not having any particular technical or aerodynamic innovations, the single-seater seemed promising and Verstappen lapped the Spanish circuit with times just below those recorded on the same circuit by the most established teams. However, the project was interrupted indefinitely after Postlethwaite's death from a heart attack, which occurred on the Catalunya-Barcelona circuit during one of the private tests, and the Dallara chassis were set aside.
HONDA RA099, Jos Verstappen
Jerez de la Frontera, private tests
Honda Racing continued to develop its own engine, the V10 RA000E, however, returning to supply engines to the BAR and Jordan teams in 2000 and continuing with the former with some success until the middle of the decade. As the partnership with BAR grew, Honda's technical input to the British team increased and eventually, in the wake of the ban on tobacco advertising in Formula One, Honda Racing purchased the BAR team outright, returning to Formula One as a constructor until 2008. Of the 6 Dallara RA099 chassis, only 4 saw actual track use and the whereabouts of only one of these cars, RA099-03, are currently known, and are on display at the Honda Collection Hall at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Japan.
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