Honda had a long and successful history in Formula One. The company first raced as a constructor in the 1960s, winning its first Grand Prix through Richie Ginther at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix and a second with John Surtees at the 1967 Italian Grand Prix before withdrawing after the death of Jo Schlesser at the 1968 French Grand Prix. Honda returned as an engine supplier from 1983, eventually powering Williams to back-to-back constructors' titles in 1986 and 1987 before a dominant partnership with McLaren produced four consecutive constructors' championships between 1988 and 1991. Honda withdrew from that engine-supply role after 1992.
By the mid-1990s, Honda president Nobuhiko Kawamoto was considering a return — this time as a constructor. Negotiations took place with several teams including Benetton, Arrows, and Tyrrell, and Honda also explored collaboration with the Japanese constructor Dome. By 1997 the plan had crystallised: Honda would build its own car and compete from 2000.
When Tyrrell Racing was acquired by Craig Pollock's British American Racing group, a number of Tyrrell engineers chose not to join the new organisation and instead moved to the nascent Honda Racing Developments project. Harvey Postlethwaite, Tyrrell's technical director, was appointed to lead the chassis development. Honda did not yet have the European manufacturing infrastructure to build the car itself, so Dallara was contracted to produce the chassis.
The RA099 featured a monocoque in carbon fibre and honeycomb construction. It was 4,500 mm long, 1,800 mm wide, and 950 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 3,020 mm and a total weight of 605 kg including driver. Power came from a Mugen-Honda MF-301HD V10 engine displacing 2,998 cc and developing 680 hp at 15,000 rpm. Transmission was a six-speed sequential gearbox developed by Honda; suspension used Showa shock absorbers, brakes were supplied by AP Racing, wheels by Enkei, and tyres by Bridgestone. Four functional chassis were built, designated RA099-1 through RA099-4, with two remaining in Europe for track testing and two sent to Japan.
A first shakedown test was conducted on 15 December 1998 at the Varano de' Melegari circuit in Italy. The car wore a white livery in early tests that was compared by observers to Honda's 1960s racing colours.
The RA099's pre-season test results surpassed expectations. At the Circuito de Jerez in late January 1999, Jos Verstappen — the Dutch driver recruited on a three-year contract — completed 30 laps and set the fastest time of the day, 1 min 26 s 580, beating the BAR 01 of Jacques Villeneuve by 1.2 seconds. Verstappen led the session again on each of the following three days. The RA099's pace was so striking that rival teams suspected it was being run under the minimum authorised weight. Honda Racing Developments engineers, most of them former Tyrrell staff, were highly satisfied; Verstappen described it as the best car he had ever driven.
At the subsequent Barcelona tests in early February, Verstappen completed 221 laps across three days and set a best time 1.4 seconds off the session-leading Prost. Rival teams complained about Honda's presence in pre-season testing, and Bernie Ecclestone informed the team that it was no longer authorised to test alongside Formula One competitors, directing it to conduct its own programme at the Lurcy-Levis circuit in France.
On a test day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in mid-April 1999, Harvey Postlethwaite suffered chest pains during the session. He returned to his hotel and was admitted to hospital, where he died from a heart attack. Honda cancelled the remainder of the Barcelona tests.
Postlethwaite's death accelerated the internal debate within Honda's board of directors over the viability of the constructor project. Many directors — particularly representatives from Honda North America — had been reluctant to commit the estimated 200 million per year budget for five years that a full team would require. British American Racing, dissatisfied with its Supertec engines, had been in discussions with Honda to become a works partner, offering 60 million for a three-year engine supply. On 19 May 1999, during a test session at Barcelona where Verstappen set the sixth fastest time out of 21 entrants, a board member arrived at the circuit and ordered an immediate halt to proceedings. Honda announced the cancellation of the Honda Racing Developments project the same day, confirming it would instead supply engines to BAR.
For Jos Verstappen, the cancellation was a major professional blow. He described it as "a huge disappointment, especially if we examine the competitive results we have achieved so far and the great potential we had." He subsequently joined BAR as a test driver to work on a new Honda V12 engine programme.
Dallara built a total of six RA099 examples, four of which were fully functional. The RA099-3 chassis was restored and placed on display at the Honda Collection Hall at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Japan, wearing the white livery used during development tests. The Bracknell factory, still owned by Honda, retained four further RA099s including two bare chassis.
The RA099 represents an unusual footnote in Formula One history: a car that demonstrated genuine race-winning potential — outpacing established teams in pre-season testing — but never competed in an official championship round. Its short existence also claimed the life of one of the sport's most respected chassis engineers. Honda's eventual full return as a works team came years later, confirming that the underlying ambition driving the RA099 project was real, even if the timing and structure of the 1999 attempt proved unsustainable.