Red Bull is believed to have lost out their championship-winning recipe to their new rivals Aston Martin. As per reports, Honda is set to join hands with the British team from the 2026 F1 season.
This has come after their existing partner Red Bull tied up with Ford recently, making the Milton-Keynes-based team lose their instrumental ally who helped them to dominate, The Race reports.
However, Honda, who quit F1 at the end of the 2021 season, is still tied with Red Bull and its sister team AlphaTauri. The Japanese giants are still in contract with them to supply engines until 2025 but in a less engaged capacity.
Why did Honda choose Aston Martin?
Back in 2020, Honda’s then-CEO Takahiro Hachigo revealed that the company would part ways with F1 at the end of the 2021 season. The decision was made in order to prioritize zero-emissions technology for its automotive division.
However, after seeing the success of Red Bull throughout the end of 2021, and the whole 2022 F1 season, it is believed that their interest in the sport got renewed as their new CEO Toshihiro Mibe hinted for a reconsideration.
3⃣0⃣ years later, Honda power has taken another driver to world championship glory 👏@Max33Verstappen joins an exclusive club of Honda #F1 champions in the perfect send-off for the engine manufacturer 🙌
#Formula1 #AbuDhabiGP #Autosport pic.twitter.com/bV69pdtQz3— Autosport (@autosport) December 12, 2021
However, it was too late as the Austrian team has already come up with a decision to join Ford. For Honda to join competitive teams such as Mercedes or Ferrari was out of the question since they have their own engine facility. Under such circumstances, Aston Martin seemed to be the only competitive top-order team for Honda to join.
It is also believed that the British team’s resurgence in 2023 is one of the reasons why the Japanese manufacturers decided to go their way. Moreover, Aston Martin’s were reportedly unhappy with Mercedes engines lately. Hence, this was a perfect opportunity to join hands together.
How did Red Bull and Honda part ways?
After moving out from the underperforming Renault engine in 2018, the Austrian team decided to pair with the Minato-based company. After seeing success, Red Bull and Honda were constant partners until the latter decided to withdraw themselves from F1 after the 2021 season.
As the ties between them ended, the defending champions decided to set up powertrains in their Milton-Keynes-based factory in order to be self-sufficient. The Austrian team heavily invested in their powertrains as well as took experts from different teams on board to run their project.
However, last year, Honda made a surprising u-turn and enlisted itself under engine manufacturers from 2026 under the new regulations. On the other hand, Red Bull tied up with Ford which made the return of Honda technically impossible.
