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In 2006, Honda will compete in the FIA Formula One World Championship as a wholly-owned Honda team for the first time since 1968. Honda Racing F1 Team is the new name chosen following the acquisition by Honda Motor Co. Ltd of the full 100% shareholding in B·A·R Honda – a name selected to reflect Honda’s rich and successful heritage in motorsport.

Honda's commitment to racing has been constant throughout its history. The company founder, Soichiro Honda, entered a number of races himself, and held the Japanese land speed record in the 1930s, before he started the company that bears his name. Honda’s 1964 Formula One debut came less than two years after the unveiling of its first road car model. Honda is the only manufacturer to have notched up 600 wins in Grand Prix Motorcycle racing, and sees racing as the ideal high-pressure environment to train its engineers before they return to road car projects.

The company’s first and second generations of Formula One participation (as a full team from 1964 to ‘68, and an engine supplier from 1983 to ‘92) yielded 71 Grand Prix wins, five consecutive Drivers' World Championships and six consecutive Constructors' World Championships. Its first Grand Prix victory came at Mexico City in 1965, in only its 11th start.

The current third generation began in 2000, when Honda embarked on a partnership with the young British American Racing team that encompassed both engine supply and joint chassis development.

Having taken a 45% shareholding in the B·A·R Honda team in 2004, Honda completed its purchase of the remaining 55% from British American Tobacco in December 2005.

The Honda Racing F1 Team is truly a team effort combining the considerable resources of the existing staff of the former B·A·R Honda team, Honda’s R&D headquarters in Tochigi, Japan, and Honda Racing Development’s engine base in Bracknell. The combination of these three elements leaves the Honda Racing F1 Team well-equipped to pursue its racing ambitions, starting with achieving race wins with its new 2006 driver pairing of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.