Remembering Honda's first F1 comeback, 40 years on

Honda will make another comeback in Formula 1 when it joins Aston Martin for the new 2026 engine regulations. Forty years ago, the Japanese marque made its first comeback with the Spirit team in 1983 - which set it on the path to its 1980s success.

There are few certainties within Formula 1 and, throughout its 73-year history as a world championship, the landscape has changed indelibly on myriad occasions as progress and technology intertwine with the premise of racing some of the world’s fastest cars.

That’s not to say that there haven’t been fixtures and cornerstones that have largely stood the test of time in F1, with iconic marques such as Ferrari having been involved since the very beginning. Circuits like Monaco and Monza, although barely resembling their early iterations, have also represented an integral part of the calendar aside from a few omissions here and there throughout the years.

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Jake Boxall-Legge Autosport’s Technical Editor. Having studied Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at the University of Hertfordshire, West Country-born Jake's original ambition was to design racing cars. During a year between studies in which he accidentally rekindled a love of writing, he took up a Master's in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes. Halfway through his master's year, he was offered a place on the Autosport Academy, conducting occasional freelance duties before becoming the press officer for Formula 2 and GP3 in 2018. Autosport offered him a return to the fold later that year to serve as its Technical Editor. His voice appears on a number of videos and podcasts, and can often be found writing about terrible Formula 1 cars in excruciating detail. In his spare time, Jake enjoys baking and blames his failure to make it past the Great British Bake-Off interviews on his tenuous grasp on choux pastry. His dream is to open a brunch cafe - and his willingness to make outrageous puns in inappropriate situations has earned him the contempt of his colleagues.