Honda's motorsport division must be doing some spring cleaning. Today, the Honda Racing Corporation announced that it's getting into the memorabilia business, offering up parts and even whole vehicles for fans and collectors. And to kick things off, it's going to auction some components from the RA100E V10 engines that powered the McLaren Honda MP4/5Bs of Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger to both F1 titles in 1990.

"We aim to make this a valuable business that allows fans who love F1, MotoGP and various other races to share in the history of Honda's challenges in racing since the 1950s," said Koi Watanabe, president of HRC, "including our fans to own a part of Honda's racing history is not intended to be a one-time endeavor, but rather a continuous business that we will nurture and grow."

The bits from Senna's and Berger's V10s will go up for auction at Monterey Car Week later this year, and the lots will include some of the parts seen in the photo above: cam covers, camshafts, pistons, and conrods, with a certificate of authenticity and a display case. And HRC is going through its collections to see what else it might part with, including "heritage machines and parts" from IndyCar, and "significant racing motorcycles."

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Formula 1's four-wheeled circus got underway this past weekend in Melbourne, Australia. Held on the roads around a lake in Albert Park, the track is one of F1's trickier challenges, made more so on Sunday thanks to rain that eased off before the start of the race, only to return with a vengeance a dozen or so laps before the end. It proved to be a tough day for four of the sport's six new drivers, as well as some more well-known names, and it gave us a clearer idea of the pecking order between the teams, at least for now.

True F1 junkies were probably following the preseason test earlier this month in Bahrain, as the sport now helpfully shows those three days of running on its streaming platform. But those devoted enough to watch the cars circulate for hours with nothing on the line also know you shouldn't read too much into a preseason test, especially one held at a circuit that is unrepresentative of most of the others that F1 visits—and in unseasonably cold weather, to boot.

Little has changed in the way of the technical regulations between the end of last year and the start of this one, other than an increasing scrutiny on the front and rear wings' ability to flex when they're not supposed to. Flexing or deflecting under load at opportune times reduces the drag and allows a car to go a little faster in a straight line for the same amount of power, giving that car an unfair advantage.

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High-revving naturally aspirated engines and their associated screaming soundtracks might be on their way back to Formula 1. Not with next year's rule changes—that will see even bigger lithium-ion batteries and an even more powerful electric motor, paired with a turbocharged V6. But the sport is starting to think more seriously about the technical rules that will go into effect in 2030, and in an Instagram post yesterday, the man in charge of those rules signaled that he's open to cars that might be louder, lighter, and less complicated.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem's tenure as president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile has been packed with controversy. The former rally driver has alienated many F1 drivers with clampdowns on jewelry and, most recently, swearing, as well as a refusal to explain what happens to the money the FIA collects as fines.

He also ruffled feathers when the FIA opened up the entry process for new teams into the sport and then approved an entry by Andretti Global. While the FIA said yes, the commercial side (which is owned by Liberty Media) and the teams wanted nothing to do with an 11th team—at least until the $200 million anti-dilution fee was more than doubled and Michael Andretti stepped aside.

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The Mercedes-AMG Petronas team is buying 5,500 metric tons worth of carbon credits from Chestnut Carbon.

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The United States will have a second team competing in Formula 1 from 2026, when Cadillac Formula 1 will join the sport as its 11th team. The result is a complete 180 for the sport's owner, which was highly resistant to the initial bid, first announced at the beginning of 2023.

"As the pinnacle of motorsports, F1 demands boundary-pushing innovation and excellence. It's an honor for General Motors and Cadillac to join the world's premier racing series, and we're committed to competing with passion and integrity to elevate the sport for race fans around the world," said GM President Mark Reuss. "This is a global stage for us to demonstrate GM's engineering expertise and technology leadership at an entirely new level."

Team first, engines later

We will have to wait until 2028 to see that full engineering potential on display. Even with the incoming changes to the technical regulations, it's far more than the work of a minute to develop a new F1 hybrid powertrain, let alone a competitive package. Audi has been working on its F1 powertrain since at least 2023, as has Red Bull, which decided to make its internal combustion engine in-house, like Ferrari or Mercedes, with partner Ford providing the electrification.

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