Honda Consolidates Its Motorsport Operations

As Honda finalizes its rebranding of Honda Performance Development, the announcement that it will be involved in the development of the next Honda F1 engine may cause IndyCar even more reason for concern. It is all part of the Business of Motorsport this week.

I also have a look at who really made money from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Chevy’s muted response to Honda’s IndyCar ultimatum and the new motorsport boss at Hyundai. It is all in this week’s Business of Motorsport Roundup on Motorsport Prospects. Your source for the best curated motorsport-business news that racers can use.

News Racers Can Use will return on January 2, 2024, as I take time out for a holiday pause. Wishing everyone a healthy, happy, and safe holiday season and a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2024!

Motorsport Industry News

Formula 1

Honda Consolidates Its Motorsport Operations

The video above gives a good overview of who made money during the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.

With the formalization of Honda Performance Development’s rebrand to Honda Racing Corporation US, it has been announced that the newly rebranded unit will now complement HRC Japan’s Formula 1 engine program by joining in the development of its next hybrid turbo V6 motor. Planet F1 looks at why.

“Our goal is to increase the HRC brand and sustain the success of our racing activities and we believe that uniting Honda motorsports globally as one racing organization will help achieve that,” said Koji Watanabe, the president of HRC Japan. “Our race engineers in the U.S. and Japan will be stronger together and I am so happy to welcome our U.S. associates to the HRC team.”

Lawrence Stroll has definitively stated that he has no intention on selling Aston Martin or its F1 team in the near future.

“You don’t go spending hundreds of millions of pounds, building the greatest new Formula 1 campus and hiring 400 of the greatest employees if you’re about to leave the business,” Stroll told The New York Times. “It could not be any further from the truth that I have any interest in ever not being the majority shareholder of this team for a very long time, and it is the same with the road car company. I’m not going anywhere. I plan to run these businesses for many years. I’m at the beginning of the journey on both.”

Renault has stated that they are willing to supply the Andretti F1 team with engines if they are accepted to join the grid.

“We are talking to Andretti and to General Motors and we are happy to talk to them,” interim team principal Bruno Famin told Motorsport.com. “If they have an entry, we are happy to resume the talks. For the time being it’s a bit on standby, and not due to us, it’s because the length of the process is much, much, much longer than expected.” If they have an entry it’s because they will have demonstrated that they will bring a lot of added value to F1 and that the value of the championship and the teams will not be diluted due to that,” added Famin.

A large chunk of Formula 1’s growing female fanbase are newer to the sport, with 40% having become supporters within the last five years according to More Than Equal. This increase shows the changing tides in F1’s audience as it reaches a wider demographic and presents an unique opportunity for the sport to engage with its female fanbase.

To read more of their research, click here – https://morethanequal-com.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Final+MTE+Report+June+30%5B1%5D.pdf

The FIA has fired back at previous FIA President Jen Todt on the finances of the Federation.

“As the FIA president outlined during the annual general assemblies week in Baku, the FIA has been transparent in revealing that soon after the new presidential team took office, the financial state that was discovered was unsatisfactory and unsustainable,” said the spokesman. “The federation was incurring significant losses.”

General Motorsport Industry News

Honda Consolidates Its Motorsport Operations

Last week I mentioned Honda’s ultimatum to IndyCar on the need to curb costs and this week comes Chevy’s muted response.

“The other proposal from our competing OEM (Honda) and what they have said recently… my view is that in the right forum, we can discuss how to lower costs. It could be in engineering, in aero, aero development, aero testing, wind tunnels, on-track testing; how much time we give the teams. In other series where we’ve done this, we’re relying more on simulation. So there’s a lot of ways to do it; that’s the right spot to do it – with the OEMs — when the series calls us together. That’s the forum to do that, and that’s when we’ll do it.”

IndyCar owner Roger Penske talked to Forbes about IndyCar’s media rights negotiations in the context of the recent NASCAR media deal. “As for future media rights deals, Penske and IndyCar believe they have the metrics and data points that can justify an increase in rights fees for the next media rights deal that will begin in 2025.”

Cyril Abiteboul has been named as Hyundai Motorsport president as part of a senior management reshuffle at the Korean manufacturer. The announcement of Abiteboul is accompanied by several further internal restructuring measures that will commence from the start of 2024, with the objective of improving the marque’s performance and efficiency.

Supercar squad Dick Johnson Racing is undergoing a significant off-season restructure that includes a return for Dr Ryan Story and the departure of Ludo Lacroix. “2023 was a challenging year for us and certainly not at the level we aspire to be,” said DJR CEO David Noble.

Atlanta Motorsports Park (AMP) is the receipt of the prestigious 2023 Outstanding Facility Award, presented by SPEED SPORT, at the Race Track Owner’s Conference, held on December 4-7 2023 in conjunction with the PRI Trade Show in Indianapolis. The accolade “recognizes AMP’s unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation in the high-performance driving and racing industry, setting a high benchmark for facilities worldwide.”

Finally, LawinSport will be holding the Motorsport Law Conference 2024 in London on 18th March 2024. The Motorsport Law Conference 2024 will provide a full day of panel discussions and presentations followed by a networking evening. The conference provides a professional forum to meet and develop meaningful relationships with colleagues working in the sector.

You can get full details here.

Quick Takes on the Business of Motorsport This Week

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Honda Consolidates Its Motorsport Operations
Mark Boudreau
Author: Mark Boudreau

Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a former lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.