The 2022 season should have been that of the great division between Red Bull and Honda, with the Japanese brand having already announced during the final part of the 2020 season its intention to disengage from Formula 1 at the end of last season. Now, however, it is becoming increasingly clear that the abandonment of the Tokyo house will in fact only take place at a nominal level, without practically having practical effects on the delicate work of the Milton Keynes team. The powerunits used by Red Bull and AlphaTauri in the championship that will kick off on March 20 will in fact be made in full by Honda, which will assemble them in its plant in Japan and then send them to the Austrian team’s British factory.
At least until the 2025 season, the last year in which the current engine freeze will be confirmed, Red Bull and Honda should continue their common collaboration ‘de facto’. It is no coincidence that former Honda CEO Masashi Yamamoto has become a consultant for the Red Bull Powertrain section. In this way he will be able to play a role of bridge between the Japanese soul of Honda and the European soul of the team that snatched the world championship title from Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes with Max Verstappen. The only concrete change in the relationship between the two brands, compared to what has emerged in recent weeks, concerns the intellectual property of Honda engines.
It seemed obvious that the Japanese would sell the intellectual property of their power units to Red Bull, thus allowing Red Bull to work on its own. As reported by the site RacingNews365, instead, it might not. In fact, Honda seems intent on preserving the intellectual property of its power units. A situation that could however present a substantial ‘regulatory’ advantage for Horner and associates. In fact, by no longer assuming the intellectual property of Honda, Red Bull could actually present itself as the new engine engineer at the time of the introduction of the new type of power unit in 2026.
This could grant it regulatory concessions that would not be extended to Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault. If this were to be the case, Red Bull would find itself in what is defined in English as a ‘win-win situation’. It could in fact be linked to a new manufacturer intending to enter the Circus – Audi and Porsche are the names that have been around for months – or create its own power unit. In any case, it would enjoy regulatory ‘concessions’ that would certainly be welcomed by the Milton Keynes parties. This is a theme that could therefore trigger new political quarrels in the Circus during the coming months
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