Aston Martin made a shock announcement recently when they revealed that they would be partnering up with Honda from 2026 onwards and would be getting their engines from the Japanese manufacturers. However, before the deal was made, it was believed that Honda was all set to partner up with Andretti, who is ready to splash out $200,000,000 to confirm their entry in F1.
Honda had withdrawn from the sport at the end of the 2021 season after they powered Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to the championship title and ended Mercedes’s dominance. However, Honda CEO Koji Watanabe revealed in 2022 that they had reignited their interest to join F1 once again.
Honda had already proven their mettle in F1 with their engines helping Max Verstappen win his first World Championship. Therefore, the Japanese brand was a viable option for Andretti to partner up with. However, the partnership never materialized.
The Honda deal that never saw the light of day
Andretti Autosport and Honda are already partners in IndyCar as the Tokyo based company are one of the only two engine providers in the American racing series – the other being Chevrolet. As per a report by BusinessF1, Michael Andretti wanted to partner up with Honda and bring over their partnership to the top tier of motorsports.
However, Andretti went on to suddenly announce General Motors and it’s Cadillac brand as the engine supplier for their F1 project. This move might have been inspired by Andretti’s idea to have a pure American team on the grid, and therefore they would rather tie up with an American brand compared to a Japanese one.
On the other hand, Honda also finalized a deal with Aston Martin and will provide them with engines from the 2026 season onwards. Alongside the attempted takeover of Sauber, this turned out to be another Andretti deal that never materialized.
Andretti’s F1 dreams still in doubt
Talking of things that never happened, another thing that might not happen is Andretti having it’s own F1 team. Despite immense efforts, the American motorsports family has had to face innumerable barriers in their path to enter F1.
None of the existing teams want an extra team on the grid as it would dilute their share of the revenue. As for the FIA, they haven’t been cooperative enough as well.
After promising that a decision regarding new teams would be announced by the 30th of July, the FIA has postponed it yet again and claimed that a decision will be made by September. Only after then would it be clear whether Andretti would even be able to step into the F1 grid or not.
