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.
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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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Will Honda return to the F1?
As a result, when I ran into Watanabe in Red Bulls Energy Station, I asked him if Honda and HRC were interested in staying up to date on the 2026 regulation revisions. He responded, “We are always observing what is happening in the F1 world.”
Naturally, because we recently finished and concluded our F1 activities, the Honda firm has not yet discussed the 2026 season. Hence, no plan.
It is not a closed door [to F1], he continued. According to what I gather, F1 is debating the rules for 2026, and carbon neutrality is unquestionably the direction things are going. We are traveling in the same direction. It’s not a closed door because it’s probably a wonderful opportunity to research carbon neutrality to F1.
Honda has not participated in the negotiations about the 2026 engine standards, according to Watanabe.
Currently, the focus of Japanese automakers is on making their mass-produced road cars carbon neutral, but according to Watanabe, once we realize that we can do this, we can think about F1.
Does Honda remain a part of Red Bull 2022?
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.
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.
Honda still provides F1 engines, right?
Honda officially left Formula One at the end of 2021, despite Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri still using its engines this season.
Audi: F1 participation?
From the 2026 season, German automaker Audi will participate in the Formula 1 World Championship as a power unit supplier.
It follows the publication earlier this month of new power unit regulations, which were created expressly to make it practical and appealing for newcomers to enter the sport at a competitive level.
The 2026 power units will retain the current V6 internal combustion engine architecture but will have more electrical power and only use 100 percent sustainable fuels, according to Audi, two elements that were important in it joining.
Why did Honda leave 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.
Is Honda leaving Formula One?
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. “But because it is clear that the firm made this decision, and I can understand it, we must ultimately accept it.
“However, we always have the ability to dream, therefore we hope Honda will return to F1 someday.”
Yamamoto acknowledged that he was sad to see Honda depart, but said that there was immense “The fact that Verstappen helped Honda win the drivers’ title signifies that the company eventually met its goals and won’t leave with unfinished business.
Why is Honda lacking an F1 team?
Since 1964, Honda, a Japanese automaker, has engaged intermittently in Formula One as an engine manufacturer and team owner. Beginning with the 1964 season, Honda entered Formula One, and at the Mexican Grand Prix in 1965, they won their first race. Honda continued to be successful with John Surtees but left the sport at the end of the 1968 season due to sales issues with road vehicles in the US and the deadly accident involving Honda driver Jo Schlesser. [3]
Honda made a comeback as an engine producer in 1983, which marked the beginning of a highly prosperous period for the business. After winning races in 1984 and 1985, Honda teamed up with Williams and McLaren to win the Constructors’ Championship every year from 1986 through 1991. From 1987 to 1991, Honda also won the Drivers’ Championship with Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, and Alain Prost. After achieving their goals and experiencing the collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble, Honda withdrew at the end of 1992.
In 2000, Honda made a comeback and supplied British American Racing with engines (BAR). In 2004, BAR-Honda placed second in the Constructors’ Championship. By the end of 2005, Honda had purchased the BAR team, and for 2006, it was rebranded as Honda. Due to the global financial crisis and their lackluster performance in 2007 and 2008, Honda announced in December 2008 that they would be leaving Formula One with immediate effect after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2006 with Jenson Button. [4]
Honda made a comeback to the sport in 2015 by supplying McLaren’s works power units.
[5] After three years, McLaren and Honda parted ways because the initial iterations of the Honda power units were found to be uncompetitive. As a works team, Toro Rosso agreed to utilize Honda engines for the 2018 season[6]. After Honda demonstrated rapid engine development, Red Bull Racing also committed to use Honda engines for the 2019 season. At the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix, Honda won for the first time in the hybrid era,[7] and both teams went on to win more races after that. The program came to a close in the 2021 campaign when Max Verstappen, a Honda-powered driver, won the World Championship. Honda stopped being a manufacturer in the series after 2021 in order to concentrate its efforts on carbon-neutral technologies, however it will still assist Red Bull Powertrains through the end of 2025.
Honda is the fifth-placed engine manufacturer in Formula One history, having won nearly 80 Grands Prix, six World Drivers’ Championships, and six World Constructors’ Championships. In addition to their accomplishments as an engine maker, they are the only Japanese or Asian team to have won a Formula One race thanks to their three victories as a team owner.
What F1 teams will utilize Honda engines in 2022?
Honda engines will be used by the Red Bull F1 team and AlphaTauri in 2022. Honda and Red Bull first collaborated in 2018 when Honda began supplying engines to Red Bull’s sister team, Torro Rosso (now AlphaTauri).
Then, in 2019, Red Bull Racing teamed together with Honda. When they helped Max Verstappen win his first World Championship in 2021, they experienced their first genuine success with the Japanese manufacturer.
Honda will continue to provide engines to Red Bull after 2022. Honda will own the intellectual property rights and the engines and all other associated parts will be produced in Japan. Red Bull won’t be in charge of anything pertaining to the engines’ manufacturing; instead, it will just adjust and calibrate the engines.
The engines will continue to be produced by Honda through the 2025 season. Red Bull will be in charge of producing their own engines beginning in 2026 when a new engine is introduced to the sport.
This happened after Honda abruptly changed its mind about leaving Formula One at the end of the 2021 season. Make sure to keep reading since the next part will go into more detail about this.