SUMMARY
- Honda decided to leave F1 after 2021.
- Honda helped Red Bull with their engine from the 2022 seaosn.
During the 2010s, Red Bull had a successful partnership with Renault as their engine provider. This partnership resulted in 4 consecutive Championships with Sebastian Vettel from 2010. However, once Renault resumed their own F1 team, their focus shifted towards building engines for their own car. This led to a lot of reliability issues in the power unit. In 2018, Red Bull had had enough and chose to part ways with the French manufacturer.
From the 2019 season, Red Bull announced their new partnership with Honda as their supplier for power units. At the time, the Austrian outfit did not have any other option as Ferrari and Mercedes were rival teams. However, their partnership with Honda turned out better than most of their previous relationships with power unit suppliers.
Why did Honda end their relationship with Red Bull?
In 2020, Red Bull was easily the second-best team on the grid. The following season, the team rose up to take the challenge to Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton who had been dominating the sport for 7 years. This time, Max Verstappen and the Bulls stood in the way.
The Dutch driver and his team put on an impressive fight for the Championship the entire season. Although they were not able to win the Constructors’ Championship, Max did manage to win the Drivers’ Championship in the final race of the season.
“Honda is pleased that, following our decision to leave Formula 1 at the end of 2021, we have been able to reach an agreement for the two Red Bull-owned teams to use our F1 PU technology in F1 after 2021.”#PoweredByHonda pic.twitter.com/dk4AlW2U0q
— Honda Racing F1_Archive (@HondaRacingF1) February 15, 2021
Despite this success, Honda had already decided to withdraw their name from Formula 1. They claimed that they wanted to focus more on R&D for future power units. They knew that the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) units were not sustainable and had to come up with a more sustainable way of transportation.
However, after Red Bull’s success, Honda and the team came to an agreement that the team would use Honda’s technology to manufacture the engines. Thanks to the engine freeze, no upgrades were required from the 2022 season. This engine freeze will be in effect until the end of the 2025 season. So Red Bull can run the same engine until 2025.
When is Honda returning to F1 with Aston Martin?
Despite their exit, Honda announced that they would be returning to the sport with Aston Martin. This came as a shock as they had just left Red Bull to fend for themselves.
This decision was made when the FIA introduced the new engine regulations for the 2026 season. The new regulations made the power units much more cheaper to manufacture. These power units are also expected to run on 100% sustainable fuels. This prompted Honda to get back to F1.
AMF1 Team has today announced it is entering into a works partnership with Honda from 2026.
The Japanese manufacturer will supply power units to the team from the 2026 season.
Find out more below.
— Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) May 24, 2023
Their partnership with Honda will begin in 2026. This will give the Japanese Manufacturer enough time to develop their engine. Red Bull has taken a new supplier as well from 2026. Their partnership with Ford was announced during the team’s car reveal in 2023.
From the 2026 season, there will be a bunch of new engine manufacturers like Audi as well. This could lead to a war between all these engine manufacturers. The teams will be under a lot of pressure to deliver results with their respective engines. It will be interesting to see which power unit will win the Championship in 2026.