The Honda RA106 (originally known as the BAR 008) was the car with which the

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

team competed in the

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

season. It was driven by

Rubens Barrichello Rubens "Rubinho" Gonçalves Barrichello (, ; born 23 May 1972) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who competed in Formula One between and . He currently competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No. 111 T ...

, who joined from

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

, and

Jenson Button Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship when he drove for the Brawn GP team. After his F1 career, he became champion of the 2018 season of the Super GT ...

, who had spent three seasons with the team as

British American Racing British American Racing (BAR) was a Formula One constructor that competed in the sport from 1999 to 2005. BAR began by acquiring Tyrrell, and used Supertec engines for their first year. Subsequently, they formed a partnership with Honda which l ...

. The year marked the first time Honda had competed as a full team since ; since then it had only competed as an engine supplier until taking over BAR completely in late . Honda used 'Lucky Strike' logos in

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and a ...

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Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

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, and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, and '

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' logos in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. In China all team members and drivers, used blue-yellow overalls and clothing throughout the weekend.

History

Although the year was a significant improvement from Honda's performance in 1968 and BAR's performance in 2005, Honda was unable to challenge for the world championship after impressive winter testing form. The car was quick in qualifying but less so in the races. A performance slump mid-season also led to the team parting company with the car's designer,

Geoff Willis Geoffrey Willis (born 23 December 1959) is a British engineer and the Director of Commercial Engineering at the Mercedes Formula One team. He was also the Technical Director of Red Bull Racing team from 2007 to 2009 and Technical Director of H ...

, and he was replaced by the inexperienced

Shuhei Nakamoto Shuhei Nakamoto (, ''Nakamoto Shūhei''; born 29 April 1957) is the vice-president of Honda Racing Corporation. Career Nakamoto joined the Honda Racing Corporation in 1983 and his initial work was based around the corporation's motorcycle racing o ...

. However, things improved from the German GP, culminating in Button's first F1 win in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

. Button was generally the stronger driver throughout the season, and it was felt that he deserved to get Honda's first win in their F1 return. Honda finished the season strongly with a run of points finishes, culminating in a third-place finish for Button at the final race in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. They also successfully introduced their -spec engine before the season was over. The team eventually finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship, with 86 points. The RA106 formed the basis of the Super Aguri SA07. The RA106 was also the last Honda-powered car to achieve a Grand Prix victory until

Max Verstappen Max Emilian Verstappen (; born 30 September 1997) is a Belgian-Dutch racing driver and the 2021 and 2022 Formula One World Champion. He competes under the Dutch flag in Formula One with Red Bull Racing. Verstappen is the son of racing dr ...

won the

2019 Austrian Grand Prix The 2019 Austrian Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 myWorld Großer Preis von Österreich 2019) was a Formula One motor race held on 30 June 2019 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. The race was the 9th round of the 2019 FIA ...

in the Red Bull Racing RB15. Image:Jenson Button 2006 Canada.jpg,

driving the RA106 at the 2006 Canadian GP. Image:Rubens Barrichello 2006 Brazil.jpg,

driving the RA106 at the 2006 Brazilian GP. Image:Anthony Davidson USA 2005.jpg,

Anthony Davidson Anthony Denis Davidson (born 18 April 1979) is a British former racing driver, currently working as an analyst for the Sky Sports F1 television channel, as part of the commentary team for WEC TV, as colour commentator for the F1 series of vide ...

driving the RA106 at the 2006 US GP.

Complete Formula One results

( key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

References

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Racecar Engineering technical review
Honda Formula One cars 2006 Formula One season cars {{f1-stub