Sixty years ago, Honda became the first Japanese brand to ever win a Formula 1 race. Driver Richie Ginther accomplished the feat in a car called the RA272 at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix—and the brand is celebrating with a demonstration featuring the same car at the same race next month.
Yuki Tsunoda, a current Red Bull Racing driver and a former Honda junior driver, will get behind the wheel of the RA272 for the run. It will be a rare chance for a current Formula 1 driver to drive a vintage F1 car during a real race weekend, although the 1.5-liter V-12 racer is unlikely to teach Tsunoda any lessons that would help when he races in a high-downforce V-6 hybrid later on in the weekend.
The Red Bull driver previously ran the RA272 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, but he has never run the car during a race weekend. The race-winning car has also been seen at historic races, including at Laguna Seca during 2024’s Monterey Car Week. An on-track appearance by any historic racer during an actual grand prix weekend is more rare, though.
Honda has been partnered with Tsunoda’s employer Red Bull Racing in Formula 1 since 2019, a partnership that has stretched in some form or another across all four of Max Verstappen‘s driver’s championships. That deal ends when new regulations go into effect next year, but Honda will continue on in the series with new factory partner Aston Martin.
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Fred Smith’s love of cars comes from his fascination with auto racing. Unfortunately, that passion led him to daily drive a high-mileage, first-year Porsche Panamera. He is still thinking about the last lap of the 2011 Indianapolis 500.