Why Red Bull-Honda Bond F1 was beyond savings after 2025

From an inauspicious beginning in an era of Mercedes-CRACH, Red Bull’s partnership with Honda extended the two teams backwards, with Max Verustapane Following the footstian Vetail’s footsteps as a four -time world champion, he won 63 wins by the end of 2024.

But this is a success story that is finally coming to the army with Aston Martin for the new 2026 new power unit rules with the red bull powertrain-Ford, with the Red Bull Povertrain-Ford. Went.

October 2020: Honda draws out

The end of the red bull-honda partnership was 2 October 2020, the day Honda officially announced that it would leave the formula 1 After 2021 season. The company said it was committed to fully electrified and there was a possibility of economic consequences of the Global Kovid -19 crisis. “Honda needs to make a funnel of its corporate resources in the research and development of future power unit and energy technologies,” read a statement on time. An expensive F1 program is no longer fit in that picture.

This F1 Padock was a shock for many people, including red bulls, which had to come up with a plan between limited options. The team’s principal Christian Horner said, “I am a great believer in luck. It was during Kovid that Honda decided to withdraw us, so that we could be left with an option,” said the team’s principal Christian Horner . “We will not get an engine Mercedes and at FerrariWe were not sure how many cylinders we would get! Renault, we went there and did, not right to go back again. It seemed that it is’ okay our hand, let’s force a decision. ,

The option of a Left-field was to acquire Honda’s IP and build the current power unit by the end of the rule cycle, but it proved to be very complicated to manage for both sides. “After finding out that it became more and more complicated, as this process is not only about the construction engine, it is more than this supply chain and so on,” Horner said.

A more realistic path was a payment deal between Honda and Red Bull by the end of 2025. Honda will provide technical assistance, and all engines for both Red bull racing And Racing bulls Will still come from Japan. “We announced to stop our Formula 1 activities, but after discussing with Red Bull, they wanted us to continue the activities,” Koji Watanbe, head of Honda Racing Corporation, told Autosport. “So we have become a kind of technical support since then. In fact, we still operate everything towards the power unit.”

Horner said: “We are a Honda customer. We pay for the engine through a separate unit of Red Bull Povertrain. It has been a great relationship, and they continue to provide an excellent service, for which for which they continue We pay, cars to provide engines for four.

November 2022: Honda F1 decides on U-turn, but the red bull has already moved forward

Honda began to entertain other views about its decision when the 2026 rules began to move towards chasing the Japanese veteran, with a large percentage of durable fuel and hybrid power. “From Honda’s perspective, the combustion engine with the new F1 rules for 2026 is 50% and the electrical part is 50% for both Honda and Honda Racing,” Watanbe explained. “The direction with carbon-plated fuel is also very good for us, so it is basically that we have officially decided to return to Formula 1.”

Honda’s first conversation about 2026 was with Red Bull, in which the advisor Helmut Marco was visiting the manufacturer in Japan. “When we withdrew from Formula 1, Red Bull decided to set up its power unit company – that is why there was no place to work together,” Watanbe misses from those meetings.

By the time Honda changed its mind, Red Bull had already invested millions of people in its Poetrain Project, established a dedicated unit in its Milton Keins Campus. No one was behind as Vastapane, as Verustapane states: “A few years ago, he said ‘we are going to stop’, so Red Bull established his engine division. Unfortunately, once you already already In the process, build an entire engine, you can’t really work together now. “

However, an interesting description is that Honda and Red Bull discussed another option for 2026. “During our regular conversation, we discussed the option of the Red Bull, which the internal combustion engine himself and us in the electrical parts,” said Watanbe. “But it’s not at all easy if they only make ice and we did the electrical parts, so in the end we came to know that it was impossible to cooperate in these circumstances.”

It would be a gambling to combine an internal combustion engine produced in Britain with electrical parts from Japan, including the complexity of working on two different sides of the world. Another risk was that no side had complete control over the final product. For example, if the combustion engine decreases, it would indirectly reflect on Honda, while Japanese engineers had no control over it.

May 2023: Red Bull helps Ford as Honda Lands on Aston Martin

The final result was that both brands would go in their different ways in 2026. Honda eventually made a deal to work with the Lawrence Walk Hyper ambitious Eston Martin Squad, although Watanbe revealed that several teams showed interest.

“The first part of the process had only conversations between Honda and Red Bull,” he recalled. “Discussion with other teams began when we officially registered ourselves with an FIA as a power unit supplier for 2026. It was in November 2022. Then some other teams approached us, because they of Honda of Honda We were interested in working together.

Asked how many teams contacted Honda, Watanbe replied: “I can’t give you an exact number, but many teams. Some of them have contacted only once and some others which we many times we many times Have met. “

Meanwhile, Red Bull Poetrain signed a technical partnership agreement with Ford, in which OEM’s contribution described as “battery cell and electric motor technology as well as its expertise on the power unit control software and analytics” Gone, engines are still being built and developed in Milton. Keins.

This is a huge task, although Horner feels that the first-house power unit program of the Red Bull also provides opportunity. “From the point of view of future protection, we did not want to be in a situation where we were with Honda, where suddenly the decision to change the management or head office is a decision that F1 does not suit them anymore – and you do not suit them anymore The shelter ‘T received an engine, “he said.

“With this route we have more control of our own fate. The investment we have made for a long period is not a short -term commitment. I think apart from Ferrari, we are the only team in which everything in which everything is Has fully integrated to 2026 with the same ownership on a site.

Horner said: “I have no confusion that there will not be challenges in 2026. I mean, to hit the ground with a competitive power unit against Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda – all the massive manufacturer We have got three years of experience with decades of experience, but we have got a lot of passion in a very large amount of passion that we have achieved so far.

“It will be very beneficial when we combine the number with an engine that is designed, manufactured and manufactured here in Milton Keins.”