According to Reuters:
Honda announces long-awaited F1 return
Honda Motors said on Monday it plans to return to the Formula
One circuit with a
full racing team in 2000, marking the end of an eight-year
absence from the sport
its engines once dominated.
Honda President Hiroyuki Yoshino told reporters that a
comprehensive team, using
its own engine, chassis and management, would begin full-scale
testing early next
year with an eye on the 2000 championship.
The new team means Honda's approach will be similar to that of
Italian constructor
Ferrari, which manages its own team as well as making its own
engines and
chassis. Other major carmakers on the circuit supply their
engines for independent
racing teams to use.
Honda had announced its intention to return to the track
earlier this year but had
given no date for its comeback, which has been the subject of
much speculation in
the Japanese sports press.
Yoshino said that many of Honda's engineers joined the company
out of an interest
in F1 racing and that the return would give a healthy boost to
morale.
He doubted that the company would be able to take the
championship during its
first year back on the circuit, although it hoped to be a
viable contender within three
years.
Honda took part in F1 racing as a full team between 1964 and
1968, winning two
out of 35 races.
But the manufacturer shot to prominence in the sport in the
late 1980s and early
1990s when it dominated the constructors' championship, winning
the title a record
six consecutive years until 1991.
Honda withdrew from the sport after the completion of the 1992
circuit, stating that
it had achieved its objectives in the sport.
