Honda, F1 constructor

Red Bull will use the manufacturer's powertrains until the end of 2025 with support from its motorsport division, despite the marque formally quitting F1 at the end of 2021.
After the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Suzuka returns to the calendar this weekend for the first time since 2019, for which Honda has increased its support of Red Bull.
Ahead of its home race, the full ...

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Honda formally quit F1 at the end of the 2021 season, yet it has continued to support the Red Bull-owned teams on their power units via its racing division, Honda Racing Corporation, in a deal running to the end of 2025.
But Honda branding will now return to the Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri cars from this weekend after an increased partnership was announced on Wednesday, marking the closest ...

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Porsche announced on Friday that its planned collaboration with Red Bull won’t be going ahead, leaving the latter free to pursue other potential partnerships.
Honda ended its official involvement in the sport at the end of 2022 ostensibly to focus its R&D resources on electrification, having agreed to continue to supply its current PU to Red Bull and AlphaTauri until the end of ...

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According to Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine’s F1 team principal and the former Honda F1 director of strategy and business planning, there was a two-week window where Vettel was available to sign back in his junior days.
Szafnauer has always enjoyed a good relationship with Vettel, and played a key role in the German driver signing for Aston Martin last year after holding ...

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Following Honda’s decision to leave F1 at the end of last season, the Japanese manufacturer agreed to help manufacture and run its power units despite Red Bull being leased the IP.
That was originally intended to be for this season, with Red Bull then anticipated to take over the operation and run it from its own powertrains division.
But with Red Bull’s focus at Milton Keynes being very ...

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The Japanese manufacturer quit grand prix racing at the end of last year, with its parent company wanting to divert its resources towards zero-emmission technology in road cars.
However, it did not turn its back completely on grand prix racing, with Red Bull taking over the running of the Honda power units that helped Max Verstappen to the drivers’ championship.
Furthermore, an arrangement ...

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The Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull's home race, was the scene of its first victory powered by Honda engines in 2019, courtesy of Max Verstappen.
While in 2020 Mercedes proved superior in Spielberg's two races, last year Verstappen won both the Styrian and Austrian Grand Prix at the venue from pole position.
When asked why Verstappen and Red Bull are so strong in Austria, Red Bull advisor ...

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The Japanese manufacturer, which owns the Suzuka circuit where the race takes place, turned its back on grand prix racing because it felt it could not carry on amid the business challenges posed by a shift towards electrification in road cars.
It subsequently agreed a deal with the Red Bull and AlphaTauri teams for them to continue using Honda engines, although they would be rebranded under the ...

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The Dutchman was running second behind eventual Australian GP winner Charles Leclerc when he was forced to park his RB18 shortly after starting his 39th lap.
After the race Horner insisted that there was no connection to the problem that affected both Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez in Bahrain, where the issue was in the fuel tank.
The Australian failure was external to the tank, and as ...

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The Maranello based squad has been tipped for a strong start to the season, after some consistently good performances throughout the two pre-season tests.
As well as a degree of confidence about its F1-75 chassis, team principal Mattia Binotto suggests that its analysis of winter testing has delivered some encouraging feedback on its power unit performance too.
Although a final verdict will ...

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As part of the rules overhaul for this year, F1 is demanding that cars use E10 fuel – which is a mixture of 90 percent fossil fuel and 10 percent ethanol.
The change has been widely expected to trigger a drop in power, but there have been suggestions from manufacturers that they have managed to recover all of those losses.
But Honda’s Yasuaki Asagi, who ...

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Honda ceased its official works involvement in the sport at the end of last season, and henceforth Red Bull is paying for its services, including the development of this year's power unit for the move from E5 to E10 fuel.
The original strategy as announced late last year was that the new Red Bull Powertrains division would take complete power units from Honda, with full engineering support at ...

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With Honda having pulled out of F1 last year, Red Bull is stepping up with its own powertrain division to take over running of the Japanese engines.
And while during a transition phase Honda will continue to manufacture power units from its Japanese facilities, many of the staff that helped Max Verstappen secure last year's drivers' championship have been moved on to other projects.
However ...

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In October 2020 Honda announced it would pull the plug on its F1 programme after the 2021 season following seven years of supplying hybrid power units to first McLaren, and then AlphaTauri and Red Bull.
That prompted Red Bull to bring the engine development in-house at its Milton Keynes campus, attracting staff from Honda and various rival teams to spearhead the new Red Bull Powertrains ...

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Honda announced in October 2020 that it would pull out of F1 after the 2021 season, with partner team Red Bull moving the engine production in-house at its Milton Keynes campus for the power units used by both Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri.
While Honda will aid Red Bull with its power unit, Honda's F1 director Masashi Yamamoto previously stated the development "will be totally controlled by ...

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Honda returned to F1 after a six-season absence in 2015 as McLaren's works engine partner, only for the two parties to cut ties after three difficult and unsuccessful years.
An initial deal with Toro Rosso in 2018 paved the way for Honda to link up with Red Bull the following year.
Honda announced in 2020 it would be leaving F1 again at the end of 2021, signing off with Max Verstappen's ...

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The Japanese manufacturer enjoyed an extremely successful spell with the Woking-based team in the late 1980s and early 1990s before it left the sport in 1992.
The two companies were reunited in 2015, when Honda returned to F1 for the hybrid era.
However, the partnership ended prematurely after three disappointing seasons, with Honda moving to Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) and McLaren switching ...

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Honda returned to the sport in 2015 as an engine manufacturer with McLaren but suffered a disastrous start with underperforming and unreliable engines, which had to be designed to fit McLaren tight packaging.
The partnership proved to be a major embarrassment for the proud Japanese company, with soundbites such as Fernando Alonso's "GP2 engine" comment doing little to improve relations.
A ...

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The Honda-powered Red Bull team are currently locked in a tight fight with Mercedes for the F1 titles, but recent races have been impacted by grid penalties for its German car manufacturer rival.
In Brazil, Lewis Hamilton will take a five-place grid drop for taking his fifth Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) of the season, having already taken an extra one in Turkey.
His teammate Valtteri ...

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Honda will quit F1 at the end of the season following a seven-season stint back in the series, during which it has worked with McLaren, Red Bull and AlphaTauri.
Red Bull has a chance to give Honda a farewell championship as it goes head-to-head with Mercedes for the constructors’ title, as well as seeing Verstappen in the thick of the fight for the drivers’ crown.
Honda worked to ...

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The Japanese car manufacturer is helping Red Bull in its fight with Mercedes for the world championship this year, ahead of its withdrawal from grand prix racing at the end of the campaign.
The current success is a world away from the struggles Honda faced when its first came back to F1 with McLaren, as it battled with a lack of performance and poor reliability.
Those difficulties prompted a ...

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Verstappen was involved in a high-speed crash at Silverstone after colliding with title rival Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap of the race, leading to concerns about the state of his engine.
Initial checks by Honda suggested that it would be fine to continue using, only for an inspection after qualifying in Hungary to prompt Red Bull to fit Verstappen with his third and final engine of the ...

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Verstappen faced a late drama ahead of the Hungaroring race when the power unit he had been scheduled to run had to be replaced on Saturday night after Honda detected problems with it.
The engine, which was the one that had suffered a 51G impact in his British Grand Prix accident, had run without problems in Friday practice at the Hungaroring and looked to be okay through Saturday.
However ...

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The Dutchman had been using the same engine that he had crashed at the British Grand Prix a fortnight ago so far during the Hungaroring weekend.
Having undergone checks at Honda’s Japanese R&D facilities after the 51G impact at Silverstone, plus further evaluation in Friday practice in Hungary, there had been confidence that the engine was all good to keep using.
But following ...

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Verstappen was involved in a high-profile accident at Copse on the first lap of the British Grand Prix after contact with Lewis Hamilton, with the back of his Red Bull completely destroyed after impacting the tyre barriers at high speed.
Despite the sizeable damage, which Red Bull estimated cost the team over 1.8 million dollars, Honda has given Verstappen the all-clear the continue using his ...

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