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...
In 2022, will Honda still compete in Formula One?
In advance of the 2022 season, AlphaTauri fired up its AT03, bringing Honda’s next Formula 1 engine to life.
Honda will continue to provide Red Bull and AlphaTauri throughout the next years despite the manufacturer’s formal exit from Formula One at the end of the 2021 season; the units will be maintained by the Red Bull Powertrains facility when it opens in the summer.
Before the car’s premiere on February 14th, AlphaTauri published a video of the AT03’s Honda engine being fired up on Friday. On February 9, Red Bull will officially unveil their brand-new RB18 as Max Verstappen prepares to defend his F1 championship.
It indicates that all four F1 engine producers—Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault, and Honda—have already shared fire ups for the upcoming season.
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Honda’s final season in Formula One?
Max Verstappen is on the verge of winning the title, and Honda is not departing the Formula One scene quietly.
- Before the new rules are implemented for the 2026 season, Red Bull Powertrains will continue to use the current Honda power units for its teams through 2025.
- Honda last won both the Formula 1 Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships with Ayrton Senna and McLaren in 1991, and now Red Bull and Honda are vying for both crowns.
- Following the final race of 2021 in Abu Dhabi on December 12, Honda will leave Formula 1.
Before ending its formal participation in Formula 1, Honda has just two races left. As Red Bull Powertrains, which was founded following Honda’s announcement of its exit in October 2020, has acquired its intellectual property, it will continue to have a sporadic presence.
Before the new rules are implemented for the 2026 season, RBP will operate such power units for its teams through 2025. In 2022, Honda employees will continue to be active. However, officially, Honda will no longer compete in Formula One after the Dec. 12 race in Abu Dhabi.
The days when Honda’s performance was terrible, its reliability was even worse, and it was a complete embarrassment are long gone. Twelve engines were needed for its 2015 comeback, and McLaren, which it supplied, finished ninth out of ten teams. Champions Mercedes used all four of its allotted.
At Red Bull, who will take Honda’s place?
When Formula One travels to Austin for the United States Grand Prix, Red Bull vehicles and driver outfits will sport Acura branding.
As an engine partner for Red Bull and F1 till the conclusion of the 2021 season, Honda is preparing one last marketing stunt for their final visit to the United States.
Currently, Acura serves the American and Canadian markets as Honda’s luxury arm. They were introduced in 1986, and they compete with other high-performance luxury manufacturers like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, and others.
Acura has already made an appearance in Formula 1. While competing in North America in the late 1980s and early 1990s while operating the dominant Honda engines at the time, McLaren drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost sported the Acura name on their visors.
Honda continues to work with Red Bull?
The power unit support agreement between Honda and Red Bull has been extended, and the two companies will now work together through the end of 2025. Honda left the Formula 1 at the conclusion of 2021 after helping Max Verstappen of Red Bull win his first F1 World Championship.
Why did Toyota quit Formula One?
Kawasaki, a manufacturer of motorcycles, also disbanded its MotoGP squad as a result of a severe market downturn.
After the 2010 season, Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone said on Monday that they will not extend their supply agreement with Formula One.
To cut costs during the worldwide economic downturn, Toyota’s Fuji International Speedway circuit gave up hosting rights for the Japanese Grand Prix in 2010 and beyond in July.
Honda-backed Super Aguri, which departed from F1 early last year because to financial concerns, marked the beginning of Japanese corporations leaving the sport.
With Toyota’s departure, Ferrari (FIAT), Mercedes, and Renault are the only remaining Formula One manufacturers.
It also gives BMW-new Sauber’s Swiss owners the opportunity to join the grid as the 13th team.
Toyota committed to F1 until at least 2012 by signing the Concorde deal earlier this year, so a withdrawal could have legal repercussions.
On 16 trillion yen in sales, Toyota expects an operational loss of 750 billion yen ($8.3 billion). Results for the second quarter are expected to be announced on Thursday.
Yumiko Nishitani contributed more reporting, while Peter Rutherford and John O’Brien edited the article.
Why did McLaren Honda not succeed?
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.
Honda is retiring from Red Bull F1?
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.
Audi: F1 participation?
Porsche and Audi will both compete in Formula 1, according to Herbert Diess, CEO of parent company Volkswagen Group.
Diess announced that the group’s Porsche and Audi brands will both participate in the sport during an online “Dialogue with Diess” question-and-answer session. He said, “You just run out of reasons [not to join F1].
The decision to enter F1 divided the Volkswagen Group board of directors, according to Diess, who also disclosed that the board ultimately decided to approve the move since it will generate more money than it will cost.
After Honda, what will Red Bull do?
Honda is slated to construct and service Red Bull’s engines at its Sakura factory until 2025, though this has not yet been formally confirmed. As a result, it is anticipated that Honda will continue to be a background player for a longer period of time.
Therefore, Honda will essentially work as a contractor next year rather than handing off complete duty to Red Bull Powertrains. According to the conditions of the collaboration the two businesses agreed to near the end of 2021, this will either be covered by Red Bull or offset by a win-win arrangement.
Having staff from Honda Racing Development UK’s Milton Keynes facility as part of the newly formed Red Bull Powertrains company allows it to concentrate completely on getting the first Red Bull F1 engine ready for the new regulations in 2026.
The engine that will be in the Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri vehicles for the foreseeable future is not a legitimate “Red Bull Powertrains” product due to the close relationship between the two companies and the intellectual property ownership of the engine. Similar to how everyone knew Red Bull’s ‘Tag Heuer’ engines from 2016 to 2018 weren’t actually built by the watchmaker, it’s merely a label on an entry list.
Up to the end of 2025, this will be a Honda in all except name. To Red Bull and Verstappen, that is the only thing that counts. It’s a minor side issue whether the team has the right to label it a Red Bull Powertrains engine.
This continuation project is unlike previous ones because it will continue to be umbilically connected to Honda.
If we are to learn anything from the past, Mugen and Mecachrome are two programs that, like the “Red Bull Powertrains” engines, were based on actual works projects.
In the 1990s, Mugen’s involvement in F1 began and ended as a Honda OEM program. Honda was initially concentrating on its V12 project, therefore Mugen prepared the Honda RA101E V10 engines that powered Tyrrell in 1991.
Then, in 1992–1993, Mugen provided an evolution of the engine with independent finance under the moniker Mugen–Hondato Footwork, even though certain Honda engineers were still participating.
Honda officially quit at the end of 1992, but Mugen carried on, switching to Lotus and then Ligier before famously defeating Olivier Panis to win the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix.
Honda steadily increased its engagement once more, and by the time it partnered with Jordan in 1998, the engines were essentially Honda works engines. Before Honda’s fully fledged works return with BAR in 2000, Mugen-Hondas were able to win three more grand prix races.
Acura displacing Honda in Formula One?
Red Bull intends to run with Acura branding throughout the race weekend at Circuit of The Americas, according to Decal Spotters. The name Honda will still be used even if the brand “Acura” will be on the vehicle and the racing equipment.
Prior to the F1 season, Honda used the Meyer Shank Racing squad in IndyCar to advertise the Acura brand during the Acura Grand Prix at Long Beach.