ABU DHABI/TOKYO: Honda Motor Co. bowed out of the Formula One World Championship auto racing series in style, after driver Max Verstappen won the championship for Red Bull Racing Honda on Sunday.

It is the first championship for a driver in a Honda car in 30 years, since Ayrton Senna bagged the 1991 crown in a McLaren Honda machine.

Honda had announced that it would withdraw from the Formula One series after the end of this season, in order to focus on the electrification of its automobiles.

A Red Bull Racing Honda vehicle was on display in front of Honda’s headquarters in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on Monday, along with a large photograph of Verstappen and a message including the words “We did it together.”

The 24-year-old Dutch driver won his tenth race of the season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in a machine equipped with a power unit supplied by the Japanese automaker. The victory at the Yas Marina Circuit clinched Verstappen the world title for the 2021 season.

The Abu Dhabi event took the number of race victories by a Honda-equipped car to 89.

Honda was the first Japanese automaker to take part in the Formula One series, joining in 1964 under the initiative of company founder Soichiro Honda. After two victories including its first at the Mexico Grand Prix in 1965, it went on a hiatus from 1968 to focus on its auto sales business.

The automaker went through a series of returns to and withdrawals from the racing series, including a period in which it won its first Constructors’ championship in 1986 as part of the Williams Honda team and the first Drivers’ championship with Nelson Piquet in 1987.

Honda formed a team with Scuderia Toro Rosso, now Scuderia AlphaTauri, in 2018, and with Red Bull Racing in 2019.

At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Verstappen, who now has 20 career race victories under his belt, sealed a dramatic victory after he overtook the leader, Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton, in the final lap of the 58-lap event, after the race was restarted with a single lap left due to an accident.

Mercedes won its eighth straight Formula One Constructors’ championship with 28 points more than runner-up Red Bull Racing Honda.

Hamilton, who placed behind Verstappen at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, also came second for the season, eight points lower than the Dutch driver, ending his bid for a fifth consecutive championship and eighth overall.

Verstappen became the fourth driver with double-digit wins in a season and the first on a Honda machine.

Despite Honda’s official withdrawal from Formula One, its power unit will continue to be used by Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri in the 2022 season.

The intellectual property rights for the power unit will be owned by Red Bull Powertrains Ltd., a power unit supplier established by Red Bull. Honda will give assistance regarding power unit assembly and race operations in the upcoming season.

The automaker is looking to deliver a new power unit that meets regulations ahead of testing before the start of the 2022 season. In order to maintain continuity in the team behind the power unit, willing Honda workers from its Formula One group based in Britain will be transferred to Red Bull Powertrains.

Honda’s official withdrawal means that the 2022 power unit, although created by Honda, will be treated as having been built by Red Bull.

As the new power unit will be made with technologies from the Japanese automaker, the distinct “Honda sound” of the engine will still be heard next year from the Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri machines.

JIJI Press