As Fernando Alonso rolls to the end of the pitlane at Albert Park, ready to start his 23rd grand prix season in the most-anticipated new car of the 2026 Formula One championship, one superfan will be paying very special attention.

He is not an Alonso man, or an Aston Martin supporter, nor a convert from Drive to Survive or even a follower of Adrian Newey, the most successful F1 designer of all time and father of the all-new Aston contender for ’26.

Jay Joseph is all-in on Honda and will be waiting in anticipation for the first official appearance of the new Japanese V6 hybrid powertrain fitted to the Aston Martin AMR26, eager to hear how it sounds and see how it performs.

“I became a huge Formula One fan in time for Honda’s golden era. It just imprinted on me as ‘the brand’,” Joseph tells Wheels.

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His F1 interest is now fuelled by his life at Honda. He has more than 25 years on the books with the Japanese company and currently sits in the big chair in Australia with responsibility for everything sold with the H badge – from cars to motorcycles, outboard engines, lawn mowers, generators and more.

Joseph is the first non-Japanese CEO at Honda Australia and the first person in living memory to hold all the strings from all the divisions. It’s become a very big job, even if Honda cars have been in decline on Australian roads for more than 10 years. The brand peaked at 60,629 sales in 2007 and delivered just 15,383 in 2025, at least up from the miserable 14,092 in ’24.

For Joseph, those numbers are part of the challenge – and the opportunity.

“It’s time. Leadership is not just held in Japanese hands. It’s part of Honda becoming an even more global company. Look at the opportunity I’ve got here. I’ve been so fortunate in so many ways at Honda. I’m the first to have this job,” he says.

Joseph’s role in Australia has plenty of parallels with the Aston Martin activity in F1. He’s hit the reset button on a company which has been going backwards but has history and talent and a commitment to going forward in 2026 and beyond.

“I want steady and sustainable growth,” he states simply.

What about Joseph’s own history? He is 55 years old and was born in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s the state capital and a university town which gave him an old-fashioned upbringing. He’s been married to Theresa for 25 years and, with their daughter just starting college and a son in high school, he is running solo for the moment in Melbourne.

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“It’s a nice little bubble that doesn’t change a lot,” Joseph says of Madison. “My grandfather started
collecting cars in the 1950s before it was fashionable and my dad never had less than a dozen cars. When I was 14, the shop where I was working owed me a pay check. Instead, they gave me the title to a Triumph TR3 (sports car). It had lots of body filler but it also had a roll hoop. I sold the TR3 and bought Datsun Fairlady roadsters.”

Then came a Toyota Corolla, on the way to a classic BMW 2002 and a crazy story.

“The Corolla was nappy brown. It was rusty enough that you could see through it. And, I kid you not, I sold it to a guy called Rusty Rust.”

By this time he had already jumped into the Honda world, firstly with a Cub motorcycle since “we were riding Honda trail 70s between the corn fields”, and then a CB350 for road use.

After moving away from Madison for college, where he banked a Bachelor of Science in communication with minors in art and design, he headed west. All the way west.

“My first job was in Los Angeles, doing public relations for Mitsubishi Motors. I interviewed for an
internship with all the Detroit companies, but it was a tough market. There was an opportunity in LA, so I took it,” he says.

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He quickly learned the value of relationships and two of his earliest colleagues – Joe Jacuzzi, recently retired from GM, and Scott Vazin, currently head of PR at Toyota USA – are still close buddies.

“I also learned the value of having fun at work. It wasn’t just that I met two colleagues who became lifelong friends, it’s that we had a lot of fun working together. We came up with fun ideas, we worked hard to pursue them, and we laughed a lot. Those guys taught me that it was okay to blow off work once in a while to clear our heads.”

He moved on to Nissan’s PR agency, worked for a time at a boutique agency, then got an opening at Honda and a shove from his then-girlfriend, now wife.

“She said ‘If you want to work at Honda, work at Honda’. She told me exactly what I needed to hear.”
One of his earliest colleagues was Koji Watanabe (below). They bonded while driving swiftly in a sporty Acura at Whistler in Canada and then stopping to chat beside the road.

“He told me: ‘In Honda, network is everything’. I also learned the lesson of not having too much fun at work. Sparing the gory details, I was fortunate enough to have someone or other looking out for me that turned some risk-taking experiences into valuable lessons rather than career-ending mistakes.”

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And he moved into product planning. “I did that for a few years. You have to fall in love with the data to be a good product planner. It’s not your opinion that matters, it’s the business plan.”

There were plenty of other lessons as he worked his way around Honda in the USA, from external communications and product planning to safety and regulations, dealer communication, training and technology in the auto division, automotive marketing and, most recently, on sustainability issues and business development.

“You can find joy in anything, and you need to get out of bed every day,” he says.

It adds up impressively but there is something even more important to Joseph’s time in Australia. He says he will not be just another fly-in, fly-out CEO using Australia for a box tick to take the next step up the corporate ladder internationally.

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“I didn’t come in with a bag of magic dust from North America. The brief was very simple: stabilise the business and get on a sustainable growth curve.

“I love the people, I love the market, and actually, I’m really enjoying Melbourne.”

He said the toughest times are done at Honda Australia, through contraction in the car company and its model line, as well as the move to the ‘agency model’ – also in place at Mercedes-Benz – that effectively fixes prices.

“We’ve put the sharp things away. We’re not dropping anything. We did that. We’re in building mode.”
His early Australian research had been as simple as talking – and listening.

“I’m interested in what motivates people to make decisions. What I keep hearing is ‘Yeah, I had a Honda’, but it’s always in the past,” he reveals.

“It quickly became clear to me that we have to change that perspective. We have to get it to ‘I want a Honda, I need a Honda’. We have so much potential. I’ve noticed here that Hondas stay in the family, and that’s something we need to tap into.”

He is expecting three important new models through 2026, the baby Super One, smooth Prelude comeback coupe and “something coming at the end of the year at the higher end of the market”. It’s part of a planned and progressive product drive.

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“There is nothing new next year, then three models with significant potential.”

But don’t expect a price fighter baby Jazz.

“Jazz was not good business for us,” he states. “I would love to have something more affordable, but we don’t have that right now. Everything has to make sense and contribute to profitability. It’s not the easiest market in the world. We’ve made some very adult business decisions.”

Why then, in a market increasingly driven by Chinese newbie brands, should somebody turn – or return – to Honda?

“Number one: we make a great car. We make cars that are not just good value but also have good values. Our cars are enjoyable to drive. It should engage you in the act of driving and reward you for driving well. We take care of our customers. If that’s not what somebody is looking for, they should look somewhere else.”

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Honda Australia is the big job for Joseph, but he also has incredible enthusiasm for Honda in F1. Starting with his old mate Koji Watanabe.

“He is now head of Honda Racing Corporation,” Joseph says, looking to the Australian Grand Prix. “Soichiro Honda said ‘Without racing there is no Honda’.

“This is the time to do it. We’re back in at just the right time. It’s a story we need to tell. We are working to intertwine the technical challenge of F1 with the passion and the engineering. And then connect with road cars.

“I don’t have any special insight. But I’m excited to see what happens. Anything could happen. I just kinda lose my mind in the car racing.”

But he cannot resist one jibe: “There are no Chinese brands in F1”.

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And he still needs to focus on the day-to-day for a business which now sells 200,000 units – cars, motorcycles, brush cutters, lawn mowers and the rest – from its headquarters at Somerton in Melbourne.

“Big changes shock the system and people don’t adapt. What I’d really like to see is somewhere
between 10 and 15 per cent growth a year.”

Jay Joseph is experienced and focussed, but there is something that tells you even more about the man and his plan. His company car in Australia is not a corporate bland-mobile but a Civic Type R, and he also has an adventure bike for weekends as well as a classic droptop Honda S2000 sports car waiting for him back in the ’States.

“I did a lot of work years ago on driver distraction and ergonomics. Manual transmissions are wonderful for keeping drivers aware and alert. You’re so much more in tune with the car.”