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In an interview with Autosport this afternoon, Honda’s Formula 1 engine chief Yusuke Hasegawa has revealed there is a possibility the Japanese manufacturer could compete in Formula E in the future.
Speaking over the Austrian Grand Prix weekend at the Red Bull Ring to Autosport, Hasegawa said Honda had undertaken “some consideration” over the electric single-seater championship. But he stressed that “so far we have no plans to join FE” in the short-term. Hasegawa stated the following:-
“Of course there are some possibilities we will join FE. In the company some of the members want to join FE as well. As a technical point of view it is interesting but from a racing point of view it is not attractive yet.”
When asked further in his interview with Autosport if Honda could commit to programmes in F1 and FE at the same time, Hasegawa said it was an issue of staffing rather than finances. He added the following:-
“When we are researching the activity, from a budget point of view FE is much lower than Formula 1 so far,” he said. “So from a budget point of view it is possible. But it is more difficult to get engineers to do that.”
With the 2015/206 FIA Formula E Championship series ending with Renault driver Sebastien Buemi and Renault e.Dams as champions, the future of the series is looking promising indeed.
American manufacturer Faraday Future became the latest car company to commit to the series by tying up with Dragon Racing. It will join Jaguar in making its FE debut in the 2016/17 campaign, when the British manufacturer will end a 12-year factory absence from motorsport.
Renault is dovetailing its works F1 programme with a full FE programme alongside e.dams, while DS Automobiles (sister company to Citroen) is tied to the Virgin Racing squad.
Electric-vehicle specialists Venturi and Mahindra and emerging EV manufacturer NEXTEV are also involved in the series. Abt is pushing for greater involvement from either Audi or Volkswagen, having run with logos for both VW Group brands on its cars this season.
Andretti and Chinese Media Capital-owened Techeetah, formerly Team Aguri, are the only remaining independents in the series but car giants BMW and Nissan are known to be closely evaluating an entry into the championship.
Formula E has a series has strengthened its links in Asia thanks to the varying degrees of Chinese backing behind NEXTEV, Faraday Future and Techeetah. But should Nissan or Honda join the series they would be the first Japanese manufacturer to become involved as a competitor.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
