Honda has been competing in a variety of racing series through the years, including Formula One, IndyCar, touring car racing, sports car racing and MotoGP. Currently they are involved in Formula One, MotoGP, Super GT, Super Formula, IndyCar, IMSA, BTCC, TC2000, Formula 3, Formula 4, off-road, WSBK, EWC, MXGP, TrialGP and various different GT3 and TCR series. All of Honda's motorsport activities are managed by Honda Racing Corporation (HRC).

Early history

In 1954 the founder of Honda, Soichiro Honda, declared that the company would enter the Isle of Man TT in Grand Prix motorcycle racing. The machines were being developed for the next five years, and they would enter the event in 1959 with the RC142 bike. They took 6th, 7th, 8th and 11th place in the race, capturing the Manufacturers' Team Award. In 1961, Honda would take victories at the Isle of Man TT, as Mike Hailwood won two of the races with Honda. They would also win the 250cc and 125cc class titles in the 1961 World Grand Prix season.

In 1962, Soichiro Honda decided to enter Formula One. After a few years of development, they would make their debut at the 1964 German Grand Prix with the RA271. With the Honda RA272, Richie Ginther would take Honda's first Formula One victory at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix.

The Japanese Grand Prix started at the Honda-owned Suzuka Circuit in 1963. In 1964, Honda S600 cars were entered for the race and dominated the 1000cc and below class. Honda established the Racing Service Club (RSC) in 1965 within the Suzuka Circuit, providing a sports tuning service. A Honda S800 RSC won the GT-1 class in the 1968 12 Hours of Suzuka, impressively finishing third overall, ahead of cars with more than three times the S800 RSC's engine displacement, such as the Toyota 2000GT.

Formula One

1964–1968

Honda first entered Formula One in 1964 with their RA271 model, just four years after making their first road cars. The RA271 became the first Japanese car to race in Formula One and it made its debut at the 1964 German Grand Prix, driven by Ronnie Bucknum. Honda entered the full 1965 season with the RA272, and Richie Ginther joined Bucknum as the drivers. The highlight of the season was when Ginther dominated the Mexican Grand Prix, leading from start to finish to win the race. It was the first Formula One victory for a Japanese car and Honda.

Honda debuted the RA273 at the seventh round of the 1966 season and it had a brand new 3.0L V12 due to the new regulations. The car was used for the first seven races of 1967 and achieved a podium at the South African Grand Prix. John Surtees was Honda's only driver in 1967, and won the Italian Grand Prix with the RA300. It was the car's debut race. Surtees finished the season fourth in the drivers' championship and Honda finished fourth in the constructors' championship, despite having only one driver during the season.

The RA301, introduced at the second round of 1968, was an upgraded version of the RA300. Honda focused on developing the RA302. When it was ready for the French Grand Prix, John Surtees refused to drive it because he thought it was too unsafe. Instead it was driven by Jo Schlesser, but unfortunately he suffered a fatal accident and the car was never raced again. Surtees finished the race second in the RA301 in what was the team's best result that year. Later in the year Surtees scored a pole position at the Italian Grand Prix and a podium at the United States Grand Prix. Honda left Formula One at the end of the season.

1983–1992 Honda returned to Formula One in 1983 as an engine manufacturer, supplying engines to the Spirit team. By the end of 1983, Honda started its association with the Williams team. Honda stopped supplying engines to Spirit for 1984, but the Williams partnership continued. The Honda engines showed good performance, but were unreliable. Also, the Williams chassis – that was designed for much less power – had a hard time with the power of the turbocharged Honda engines.'Two Till The End' (1984) – VHS – EAN: 5017559030650 – Publisher: Duke Video – Studio: Formula One Constructors Association Keke Rosberg won the Dallas Grand Prix in 1984 to give Honda their first win since their return, but a lot of retirements left Williams-Honda sixth in the constructors' championship.

Honda started 1985 with upgraded versions of the RA164E from 1984. A completely new RA165E engine was introduced at the Detroit Grand Prix with a much smoother power delivery, and the team were quickly on the pace as Rosberg won the race. Williams-Honda won the last three races of the season to finish fourth in the constructors' championship with the same number of points as the third placed constructor.

The new RA166E for 1986 picked up on the momentum of 1985 and was both very powerful and reliable. Williams-Honda won the constructors' championship with nine wins. The drivers' title slipped away to the consistent Alain Prost of McLaren-TAG, after Nigel Mansell's tyre blew up at the last race. It was Honda's first title in Formula One.

Honda started supplying Lotus in 1987 after they signed Honda's test driver, Satoru Nakajima, but they used the RA166E from the previous year due to Williams' exclusive deal of the new RA167E. The season also started Honda's relationship with Ayrton Senna, who drove for the Lotus team. Honda engines dominated the season, taking 11 wins and 13 pole positions out of sixteen races. Nelson Piquet won the drivers' championship ahead of other Honda-powered drivers in second and third, while Williams-Honda won the constructors' championship.

For 1988, Honda made a deal to supply engines to McLaren, ending the deal with Williams. 1988 was going to be the final year of turbo engines in F1 and unlike most, Honda built a new engine called the RA168E, to comply with the new rules for 1988. The McLaren-Honda cars, driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, were completely dominant, taking 15 wins and pole positions from 16 races. Senna won the Drivers' Championship after winning at Honda's home race in Suzuka, and McLaren-Honda won the Constructors' Championship with more than three times the points of second placed Ferrari.

Honda introduced a naturally aspirated 3.5L V10 for the new regulations in 1989. It didn't stop the domination as the team scored 10 wins and 15 pole positions from 16 races. McLaren-Honda won the constructors' championship and Prost the drivers' title ahead of Senna. The V10 was retained for 1990 and the team won the constructors' title again, while Senna won the drivers' title.

A new 3.5L V12 was introduced for 1991. The season started well with four consecutive wins, but by mid-season the team couldn't match the performance of the Williams-Renault's. Honda and McLaren introduced upgrades that made the team really competitive again to win the constructors' and drivers' championships.

Honda announced that they would leave after 1992, having achieved their goals. McLaren-Honda finished 2nd in the constructors' standings after Gerhard Berger won the last race of the season. The closely related Mugen company stayed in the sport between 1992 and 2000, winning four races and achieving a best result of 3rd in the constructors' championship in 1999 with the Jordan team.

2000–2008 Honda returned in 2000, supplying engines to BAR. They finished 5th in the standings. BAR-Honda's best season was 2004, when Jenson Button and Takuma Sato took 11 podiums for the team to finish 2nd in the constructors' championship.

Honda fully bought BAR in 2005 and it became the Honda team for 2006. The team had a decent start to the season, but a performance slump mid-season led to car designer Geoff Willis leaving the team. The inexperienced Shuhei Nakamoto replaced him. However, things started to improve after the French GP, Honda having a strong run of points finishes and most notably, Jenson Button winning the Hungarian Grand Prix. Button scored more points in the last six races of the season than any other driver to help Honda finish fourth in the constructors' championship.

After two difficult seasons in 2007 and 2008, which only featured one podium finish by Rubens Barrichello, Honda left Formula One after the 2008 season due to the global economic crisis.

2015–2021

Honda returned in 2015 as an engine manufacturer, supplying turbocharged 1.6L V6 hybrid power units to the McLaren team. The partnership was a big disappointment, McLaren and driver Fernando Alonso regularly criticizing the power unit. McLaren and Honda split after the 2017 season, having achieved a best result of 6th in the constructors' standings in 2016.

Honda signed a deal to supply Toro Rosso for 2018. In the second race of the season at Bahrain, Pierre Gasly finished fourth to give Honda its best result since returning in 2015, at the time. After a fairly successful season, Toro Rosso's sister team Red Bull Racing agreed to also use Honda power units in 2019. The season started with Max Verstappen scoring Honda's first podium of the V6 turbo-hybrid era at the Australian Grand Prix. At the Austrian Grand Prix, Verstappen finally scored Honda's first victory of the V6 turbo-hybrid era and their first since 2006, with another victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix. In 2020, Honda enjoyed further success, with Max Verstappen winning the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone. A shock win at the Italian Grand Prix with Pierre Gasly, who was promoted to Red Bull then demoted back to Scuderia AlphaTauri (rebranded from Scuderia Toro Rosso), made Honda the first engine manufacturer in the V6 turbo-hybrid era to win with two teams. Verstappen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the last race of the season.

Despite their upward momentum under the Red Bull/AlphaTauri partnership, Honda announced in October 2020 that they would be ending its F1 engine program at the end of the 2021 season. Honda's CEO Takahiro Hachigo said that the decision was not based the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Honda's commitments to zero-carbon technologies like fuel cells batteries.

Touring cars World Touring Car Championship

Honda first participated in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) with the Accord from 2005 to 2008, although it was only used by privateer teams. It did still have some success as James Thompson won the Race of Europe at Imola in 2008.

In 2012, Honda announced that they will enter last three rounds of the 2012 season with a racer based on the European Civic hatchback, developed in a joint partnership with Mugen and JAS Motorsport. The car got its first podium at the Race of Macau that year, driven by Tiago Monteiro.

In 2013, Honda received Castrol as the title sponsor for their factory team, while Gabriele Tarquini joined the team as a driver alongside Tiago Monteiro. During its first full season in 2013, the Civic won four races, three pole positions and finished on the podium 20 times, helping Honda to win the Manufacturers' World Championship.

Following the introduction of new TC1 regulations, Citroën dominated the series between 2014 and 2016, aided by a significantly higher budget than the other manufacturers and years of experience of similar rules in the World Rally Championship. During this period Honda finished runner-up in the championship every year, and won more races than any other manufacturer apart from the aforementioned Citroën. Norbert Michelisz won the independents' title in 2015 with the Civic.