In the past Honda have been very much involved with Formula One racing.  They had two spells racing under the name of Honda Racing F1 Team, first in 1964 to 1968 and then again from 2006 to 2008.  Between 1983 and 1992 they returned to F1 supplying engines for other teams.  In 2000 they began another successful period of supplying engines, this time to the British American Racing (BAR) Team; and at the end of the 2005 season they had bought out BAR and once again there was a Honda Racing Team in Formula One.

In December 2008 Honda once again quit F1 racing stating the current economic climate as the reason, and the team were sold in February 2009 to a management buy-out led by team principal Ross Brawn.

Honda has continued its involvement in other motor sports and sponsorship deals across a wide spectrum of sport and entertainment and recently announced it will be continuing its sponsorship of Channel 4 documentaries throughout 2011.  The new campaign will continue with the strapline ‘Documentaries on 4, sponsored by Honda’.

Martin Moll, Head of Marketing at Honda (UK) said, ‘”I am very excited that our continued relationship sponsoring Channel 4 documentaries allows us to focus on our customers, highlighting their warm – sometimes quirky – personal experiences of Honda products either for fun or as a necessary part of their daily livelihood.  We hope that this campaign will unveil further examples from our customers, one of which will be nominated to be brought to life on TV for a final set of idents later on in the year”.

Four new mini-documentary films have been commissioned to accompany the Channel 4 sponsorship.  The films were created by Wieden + Kennedy (W+K) and each include a unique website link to further related content online.

Each film stars a real Honda customer and shows how they use their own Honda vehicles in their everyday life. The first of four films introduces Philippa and how she uses her trusted Honda ATV on her Oxfordshire farm.

Chris Groom and Sam Heath, Creative Directors, Wieden + Kennedy said, “We knew there were all sorts of people using all sorts of Honda products in extraordinary ways. A documentary format provided the perfect platform to celebrate them.”

As part of the campaign Honda will also be using Facebook and Twitter and linking to an online hub at www.honda.co.uk/stories where the videos will be available in full along with articles and other interesting stories.  There is also a competition in the ‘Take Part’ section of the website, where Honda owners can upload their own amusing and interesting stories and photographs, explaining the unusual ways in which they use their own Honda.  

W+K will select their favourite story and make it into the final mini-documentary to be shown later in the year as part of the Channel 4 campaign.

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Toro Rosso

The Toro Rosso team are to test two new drivers after the Italian Grand Prix, Sebastien Buemi and Takuma Sato.  They will have a day’s testing at the Jerez circuit in the STR3 to see if they are up to the job of replacing Sebastian Vettel.

Sebastian Vettel will be racing for the Red Bull team in the 2009 season, although it has been rumoured that he could actually be racing for them towards the end of this season, but there has been no confirmation as yet.

Buemi is already the test and reserve driver for the Red Bull team, so could have the advantage and still only 19-years of age.  He is also currently running in fifth place in the GP2 series.

Sato, has completed 91 Grand Prix in his career, after changing from motorcycles to racing cars.  He won the British Formula 3 championship in 2001 before joining the Jordan team in Formula One in 2002.

He left Jordan for the BAR team, where he remained for three years until he joined the Super Aguri team in 2006, when the team withdrew he was left without a drive for the rest of the season.

The testing will take place in September with Buemi testing on the 17th and Sato on the 18th.