Honda is leaving Formula 1. Indeed, no. A very important change of plan seems to have taken place inside the Japanese house.
Red Bull Racing’s engine supplier will continue to supply power units to Red Bull directly from Japan until the end of the current Formula 1 regulation, the one which went into effect on January 1 this year.
Honda ceased its official involvement in Formula 1 at the end of last season and Red Bull is now paying for Honda’s services, including the 2022 power unit development linked to the switch from E5 fuel to E10.
The original strategy announced late last year was that the new Red Bull Powertrains division would take complete power units from Honda, with full engineering support on the track, for 2022 alone.
Once Red Bull Powertrains would have picked up the right pace of work, it would then build the engines using Honda components in its Milton Keynes facility for the three-year period 2023-2025 while, at the same time, the team would work on its own project related to the new F1 rules. which will come into effect in 2026.
Despite the premise, Red Bull Racing super consultant Helmut Marko confirmed that the original plans have changed. Honda’s intention is to continue full power units from Japan to Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri until the end of 2025.
The decision thus takes away any concerns about issues such as quality control that could result from the shift of the construction of the power units to the United Kingdom, while also freeing Red Bull Powetrains, being able to focus more on the 2026 project.
The change was made in part to ensure that Red Bull Powertrains is still a new entrant when its engine is introduced in 2026. It will therefore benefit from concessions that have been discussed primarily to encourage the Volkswagen group to finally commit to F1, such as a higher budget limit linked to power units.
It is understood that the details of the new agreements are yet to be finalized and it is not yet clear whether the engines will still be branded Honda until 2025. This move, however, would be logical given the desire to ensure that Red Bull Powertrains can be considered a new. participant in 2026.
“We have now found a completely different solution than originally envisaged,” Marko told Autoreview magazine. “The engines will be produced in Japan until 2025, we will not touch them at all. This means that the rights and all these things will remain with the Japanese, which is important for 2026, because it will make us newcomers.”
Marko suggested that winning the 2021 World Championship encouraged Honda to stay closer to F1 than he bargained for.
“In the course of our ever greater successes, it has led to a rethinking of the Japanese. And also because they could obviously use the knowledge of batteries for their electrification phase of the automotive range”.
“Back then it was originally planned that they would only make our engines for 2022. It has now been decided that this will continue until 2025, which is obviously a huge benefit for us. This means we only have to make very small adjustments and refinements.”
Regarding the construction of the Red Bull Powertrains, Marko added: “The prerequisite for this agreement was that the development of the engine was frozen. Because the first stage would have been to do it all by ourselves. That’s why we started in Milton Keynes and we have dutifully purchased from AVL, a supplier of test benches “.
“The plant will go into operation in May or June. The final decision to do it ourselves was conditional on everything being frozen. Because otherwise we wouldn’t have had a chance with something so complex.”
Meanwhile, former Honda F1 boss Masashi Yamamoto has left the manufacturer to create his own consulting firm, as reported Wednesday, in order to provide a bridge between Red Bull and the Japanese house, further extending the continuity between the two partners. .
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