By Arham Pan and Joseph Sun
Honda returned to Formula 1 in 2015 with Mclaren Racing as an engine supplier. Thinking that it can repeat the good old glory days, Honda signed a 3-year minimum deal with Mclaren. After the Japanese manufacturer was struggling both in terms of reliability and speed, it was unfortunately dropped by Mclaren.
Believing that there’s no light in the tunnel, Red Bull Racing’s Italian sister team Toro Rosso made a switch from Ferrari power units to the Honda power units in the summer of 2017 At that time, the movie was deemed outrageous and nonsensical by the media. Toro Rosso and Honda struggled throughout the season of 2018 and only finished with 33 points, 20 fewer points than their previous campaign with Ferrari power units, as the media expected.
Seeing that they will have complete control of the engine project, Red Bull Racing, the sister team of Toro Rosso, made the shocking decision of signing with Honda as engine partners. The contract will then see both parties collaborate to the end of the 2021 season. The biggest reason behind this switch from Renault power units to Honda power units was due to the unreliability as well as the love-hate relationship between both parties throughout their 11 years of partnership.
Seeing Mercedes as the clear favorites for the 2019 season, Red Bull Racing went in with having a target of winning 5 races at max. Going into the first race of the season, Red Bull was ranked towards the back of the field due to their switch to Honda, but the first race of season proved things wrong. Seeing that Ferrari had the fastest engine but the weakest aerodynamics out of the top 3 teams (Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull), Red Bull qualified 4th, Honda’s best qualifying position since their return to Formula 1 as an engine supplier. Since the first race of the season was in Melbourne, Australia, in a circuit that required medium to high downforce, it was no surprise that the Ferrari with weaker aero struggled throughout the race after Red Bull pulled a strategic masterstroke and emerged Max Verstappen ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull finished the race in 3rd, this was the first time since their return to F1 in 2015 that a Honda-powered car finished on the podium.
As of 2020, Honda and Red Bull Racing achieved: 2 pole positions, 4 wins, and 17 podiums, and their sister team, Toro Rosso (Now Alphatauri), also achieved 1 win and 2 podiums with the Honda partnership.
But on the 2nd of October, Honda announced that it will be leaving F1 at the end of 2021. What went wrong? It wasn’t that they weren’t achieving success with Red Bull; in fact, they had plenty of success with the British team. Before the announcement, Honda just gave Alpha Tauri it’s a second-ever win in Formula 1 and Pierre Gasly’s first. So what exactly went so wrong that Honda decided to pull the trigger on its F1 campaign? According to the CEO of Honda, Takahiro Hachigo, the main reason Honda pulled out of F1 was that they don’t see the sport matching their pace of creating a better future. Mr. Hachigo said “realization of carbon neutrality by 2050” and “electrifying two-thirds of our global automobile unit sales in 2030” were the main reasons that Honda left Formula 1. Even though F1 director Ross Brawn stated that “Formula 1 has always been at the forefront of automotive innovation that has been hugely beneficial to the wider automotive sector. We believe as a global sport we must take the lead on important issues like sustainability and will be working with all the teams and our partners to deliver on the 2030 goal.” Honda still chose to left Formula 1, while the real reasons probably will still remain unknown, we can only look ahead rather than looking backward, as Red Bull Racing has signed that Concorde agreement that will see them staying in F1 till 2025, they are currently one of the two teams on the grid without an engine for 2022, the other one being (Alphatauri)
So what is next for Red Bull? Currently, there are 3 suppliers on the grid, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull’s ex Renault. What does the company see as the potential replacement for their future still remains unknown, but for now, we can rule out Mercedes, as the team boss of Mercedes Toto Wolff stated that the German manufacturer will not sell their engines to their closest rival on the grid. When asked if there will be a potential engine deal between the two teams, Toto Wolff immediately said “No”, he then followed it up by saying, “For various reasons, but the main being that we are supplying four teams [from 2021: Mercedes, Aston Martin, Williams, and McLaren], including us. We are almost in a state that we can’t make power units for all of us, so there is no capacity.”
So that leaves Red Bull with Ferrari and Renault, or a possibility of them adopting Honda’s engines and making their own starting from 2022. When asked about the Ferrari engines becoming a possibility by AvDMotorsport reporters (Currently the weakest engines on the grid), Red Bull’s current advisor Helmut Marko had nothing but optimistic views, “The differences between Mercedes/Honda/Ferrari vary between 15/20hp. The Ferrari engine is currently a bit behind. But I think that they will catch up soon. In addition, an adjustment of the engine performances by fuel flow meters, etc. are under discussion. We are generally on the right track. If we continue to participate, it is also with an engine that can make us win/fight for championships.” Judging from the answers, could it potentially mean that Red Bull partners up with Ferrari? At this point, these are all speculations.
With Red Bull’s team boss Christain Horner and Renault’s team boss Cyril Abiteboul having bad blood between each other for a while, Red Bull’s return to Renault is becoming less likely. With Honda giving permission to Red Bull for adopting its engines, could we see Red Bull manufacturing their own engines? It’s all speculation for now, but for this year and next year Red Bull and Honda are still working as one, so both parties should be focusing on delivering their best rather than worrying about the future, what will the future of Red Bull become is still unknown.