Following seven years of providing hybrid power units to first McLaren, then AlphaTauri, and ultimately Red Bull, Honda stated in October 2020 that it would end its F1 program after the 2021 season.
Due to this, Red Bull decided to headquarter the engine development at its Milton Keynes site. To lead the new Red Bull Powertrains section, Red Bull attracted personnel from Honda and other rival teams.
Honda struggled for years with McLaren, but in the end produced significant engine advancements that allowed Red Bull to fight with the strong Mercedes team and enabling Max Verstappen to win the 2021 world championship in a thrilling final matchup with Lewis Hamilton.
Personally, I concur, Yamamoto said. However, it is clear that this was a corporate choice, and I concur with the direction the company is taking, so in the end, we must accept that.
“However, we always have the ability to dream, therefore we hope Honda will return to F1 someday.”
In This Article...
Why is Honda quitting Formula One?
However, the alliance is rapidly coming to an end. Honda formally declared its intention to leave Formula One at the end of current season late last year in order to concentrate its efforts on the advancement of electric road vehicle technology.
“Toyoharu Tanabe, Honda F1’s development guru, states that regardless of whether this was our final season or not, we have merely maintained working very hard. ” Since we began this program, we have put a lot of effort into it every year. It’s somewhat sentimental. It’s a little depressing to know that for us, this is the final season.
Tanabe’s voice indicates that, even though he is aware of the corporate justifications behind Honda’s choice, the knowledge that this will be the manufacturer’s final F1 season is more than a little depressing.
Who will replace Honda in Formula One?
The first Formula 1 engine with the Red Bull logo will take to the circuit for the first time next month. But only in name, the engine is a Red Bull.
Honda will continue to manufacture, assemble, maintain, and provide support for the engine it created in 2022, and it is likely that it will do so for a few years beyond that as well.
This season, Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri will formally use “Red Bull Powertrains” engines as a result of Honda’s official withdrawal from Formula One.
It implies that the short-term ambitions of world champion Max Verstappen and his team rest on a continuation project, which has historically disappointed in Formula One.
But the “not a Honda” engine is special. And that’s already an improvement over the alternatives Red Bull faced; if a few crucial choices had been made differently, it’s feasible that Red Bull would have had to find a new engine supplier altogether or been forced to use a variation of Honda’s 2020 design.
Will the Honda F1 debut in 2022?
After Honda, Red Bull’s engine supplier, decided to leave Formula One at the end of 2021, Red Bull had planned to start producing their own engines. Honda had planned to stop providing Red Bull with an engine after the 2022 season. Honda, however, recently revealed a spectacular U-turn and plans to rejoin the sport. What type of engine will Red Bull F1 run in 2022, then?
Honda engines will be used by Red Bull F1 in 2022. Although Honda recently confirmed they would return to Formula One, this was supposed to be the last engine they provided. They have now opted to continue supplying Red Bull (and AlphaTauri) with engines through the 2025 Formula One season.
In recent weeks, everything has been going fairly swiftly. After the 2022 racing season, Red Bull appeared ready to take over engine production from Honda, and they had even founded a new firm named Red Bull Powertrains to do so. Things currently appear a little different, though, as a result of Honda’s recent decision to continue working with Red Bull through the end of 2025.
Don’t worry if this all seems a little confusing; we’ll explain what was originally intended to occur, why Honda withdrew, why they returned, and what will happen with Honda and Red Bull Powertrains in the future.
Check out the great products from the official F1 store here if you’re looking for some F1 memorabilia.
Leaving Red Bull, is Honda?
The continued involvement of Honda at Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri despite the manufacturer’s official exit from the sport will be one of the most intriguing parts of the 2022 F1 season.
At Red Bull, who will take Honda’s place?
“Honda getting ready to depart Red Bull During the US Grand Prix, Honda will be replaced by Acura in the team’s livery and driver uniforms.
Honda has provided Red Bull with exceptional servicing over the past three years, finally enabling them to join the championship race at the front. The business vision of Japanese firms is changing, nevertheless. Thus, they have made the decision to depart F1.
Honda will be attempting a marketing gimmick with Red Bull during their final journey to Austin, Texas, together, thus the transition to Honda’s leaving is about to begin.
Acura will take the place of Honda on Red Bull’s rear-wings and suits at Circuit of the Americas, according to Racingnews365. Honda’s name won’t be completely removed from view, though it will be on a smaller scale.
Honda’s luxury car brand Acura was first introduced to American consumers over 35 years ago. Therefore, it is a great chance for Honda to further sell their brand in the home western market.
Honda’s production of F1 engines will end.
Yamamoto acknowledged that he was sorry to see Honda leave, but added that winning the drivers’ championship with Verstappen brought about a great deal of “satisfaction rather than relief,” demonstrating that Honda had ultimately succeeded in achieving its goals and wouldn’t depart with unfinished business.
In 2022, will Red Bull use Honda engines?
The ambitious Red Bull Powertrains project is on track, according to Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner, who anticipates the first Red Bull engine to be running on the dyno by the end of 2022.
After its engine provider Honda made the decision to quit the sport at the end of 2021, Red Bull chose to create their own company, Red Bull Powertrains. However, Red Bull won’t start using their own Red Bull Powertrains unit until 2026; instead, they’ll keep using Honda technology until 2025. And Horner claims that the business has hired incredible personnel for this incredibly intriguing initiative.
We are on track in terms of our own preparation, according to Horner. By the end of the year, the first Red Bull engine will run on the dyno when we relocate to our new site in May. They are moving forward quite well, and the project is very exciting.
In 2023, who will provide Red Bull engines?
Honda stopped participating in the sport as an official works team at the conclusion of the previous season, and Red Bull is now paying for its services, including the creation of this year’s power unit for the switch from E5 to E10 gasoline.
The initial plan, which was made public before the end of last year, was for the new Red Bull Powertrains subsidiary to begin acquiring entire Honda power units with full on-track engineering support only in 2022.
In 2023, 2024, and 2025, after RBP had gotten up to speed, it would produce the engines using Honda parts at its Milton Keynes factory while also working on its own project for the new F1 regulations that would take effect in 2026.
Helmut Marko, the head of Red Bull Motorsport, has disclosed that the original plan has changed, and that Honda will now continue to provide full engines from Japan to Red Bull and AlphaTauri through the end of 2025.
The choice allows RBP to concentrate more on its 2026 project and allays any worries regarding problems like quality control that would arise from relocating the construction of the power units to the UK.
To ensure that RBP will still be a new player when its own engine is released in 2026, the adjustment has been implemented in part.
Thus, it will gain from the concessions that are primarily being discussed to help persuade the VW Group to fully commit to F1, such as a larger budget cap for power units.
However, given the intention to ensure that RBP is a new player in 2026, it would make sense if the engines continued to carry the Honda badge until 2025. It is known that the specifics of the new agreements have not yet been finalized.
Marko told Autorevue magazine, “We have now also identified an entirely different answer than the one originally envisioned.”
“Until 2025, the engines will be produced in Japan; we won’t touch them at all. As a result, the Japanese will continue to own the rights to everything, which is significant for 2026 since it makes us newcomers.
Has Red Bull acquired Honda?
Then Honda’s facility in Milton Keynes and its intellectual property for its power unit designs were agreed to be purchased by Red Bull. It lies very next to Red Bull’s own base in the same location and had been utilized exclusively for the F1 project.
Why did McLaren Honda go wrong?
The Italian Grand Prix marked the end of McLaren’s nearly ten-year winless streak, but how did it ever get that far?
Undoubtedly, the failed Honda romance had a significant impact. The following article by Mark Hughes, which was first published in October of last year, describes how what could have been a dream collaboration crumbled before the two parties went on to greater and better things independently.
Honda’s performance with McLaren in its first season back in Formula 1, 2015, was so appalling that the entire program was under jeopardy.
It created an atmosphere of technical failure that hurt Honda’s reputation and aggravated McLaren, ultimately damaging their long-term partnership.
The car averaged nearly 2.7 seconds off the qualifying pace, and McLaren drivers Jenson Button and the newly hired Fernando Alonso barely made it out of the Q1 portion of qualifying all season. The team dropped to ninth place in the constructors’ championship, ahead only of the low-budget Manor operation.
The engine’s severe power shortage was the technical reason of the accident, and it took more than half the season to figure it out in part because the engine’s early dependability was so bad that it had to be operated in a significantly detuned state to keep temperatures under control.
However, the technical issues had a political context. In essence, McLaren’s Ron Denniskeen to advance from Mercedes client team status as early as feasible had coerced Honda into participating a full year earlier than originally anticipated. In addition, the two partners had collectively decided on a set of dimensions targets that were incredibly ambitious.
After Honda, what will Red Bull do?
After winning the Drivers’ World Championship with Max Verstappen, Honda will technically leave Formula 1 at the end of 2021, however its intellectual property will remain in the possession of the recently founded Red Bull Powertrains.
Honda agreed to give Red Bull their plans for 2022 and the start of the engine freeze because of how closely they work together.
The engines were supposed to continue being prepared by Honda for Red Bull in 2022 and 2023. After that season, Red Bull’s Powertrains division would take over the production and administration of the power units.
Despite the engines not bearing the Honda logo, Honda will still service and supply the engines from Japan.