When it comes to its motorsport programs, Honda has liked to keep things regional. Its North American racing programs — including IndyCar and IMSA — have been organized under the Honda Performance Development (HPD) banner with a U.S. base located in Santa Clarita, California. If you wanted to work with Honda’s international racing program — say, regarding its Formula 1 endeavors — then you’d have looked toward Honda Racing Corporation (HRC). Now, HPD is becoming HRC U.S., and the North American side will have a bigger presence on the international stage.
In the past, HPD and HRC largely operated as independent but vaguely connected entities; this new change means that HRC and HRC U.S. will continue being involved in both North American an international sports, but there will be a much greater collaboration between, say, the IndyCar and F1 development teams than there were in the past. HRC was, after all, established as Honda’s motorcycle racing arm and has very recently absorbed F1 operations. HPD, meanwhile, was established to compete in IndyCar but spread to include IMSA, Baja, touring cars, and more. Now, they’re all just going to be more intertwined.
Honda cites quite a few different motivating factors for this change. There are now five Formula 1 races in North America, and it would make sense for the international employees to consult with the California team to really maximize Honda’s marketing activities. Further, Honda will be developing power units for Aston Martin F1 in 2026 (it currently supplies Red Bull Racing, but Red Bull has been pretty hands on with those Honda units under the Red Bull Powertrains banner); It makes sense to combine all of your best and brightest minds when it comes time to start developing both a new hybrid F1 powertrain and a new hybrid IndyCar powertrain.
“Our goal is to increase the HRC brand and sustain the success of our racing activities and we believe that uniting Honda motorsports globally as one racing organization will help achieve that,” said Koji Watanabe, the president of HRC Japan. “Our race engineers in the U.S. and Japan will be stronger together and I am so happy to welcome our U.S. associates to the HRC team.”
David Salters, who is currently president of HPD but will now become president of HRC U.S., added, “We are thrilled and very proud to join forces with our friends and colleagues in HRC Japan and represent Honda Racing as a global racing organization.”
During a press briefing with media, Honda representatives clarified that the HPD badges that are part of certain Honda road car packages will remain exactly as they are now; Honda feels that HPD has taken on its own meaning within the production car context here in America, and there’s no sense in changing it now.