Honda looks toward its F1 future as Red Bull partnership nears end

Japan Times

05-04-2025

It's a bittersweet weekend for one of Japan's auto giants: After four Formula One drivers' championships and two constructors' championships, the Honda-Red Bull partnership is nearing an end.
With Sunday marking the final Japanese Grand Prix of the tie-up, Honda Racing President Koji Watanabe reflected on one of the most successful constructor-engine supplier partnerships in the history of the sport.
'Looking back now, we're very proud of the results that we have achieved with this partnership,' Watanabe told The Japan Times in an interview on Saturday. 'Especially with Yuki (Tsunoda) being here at a home race, racing for Red Bull ... it's a very important and very significant weekend.'
But success under this generation of 1.6 liter turbocharged hybrid F1 engines didn't come easily.
The first three years of Honda's fourth era in F1 were marked by problems with reliability and raw power, with its sole customer, McLaren, dropping the Japanese company toward the end of the 2017 season.
'Our Honda staff ... struggled in a way because it was something new that they had to put all their effort into for the first three years,' Watanabe said.
That decision briefly left Honda without a customer for its beleaguered engines for 2018, but it eventually secured a deal with Toro Rosso, Red Bull's junior team, now known as Racing Bulls. After a successful 2018, Honda added Red Bull to its client list in 2019.
There's always been a bit of fickleness to Honda's commitment to F1 and in October 2020 it announced that it would leave the series for the fourth time after the 2021 season.
That year, Max Verstappen drove his Red Bull to the drivers' title, the first drivers' championship for a Honda-powered car since Ayrton Senna in 1991.
Despite officially exiting, Honda didn't stop supplying engines to Red Bull and effectively stayed in the sport under the badge Honda-Red Bull Power Train. In 2023, that partnership won 21 of the 22 races, the most successful season in the sport's history.
Now comes a new challenge for 2026 and a new generation of F1 engines as the sport moves further toward electrification with a 50/50 split between internal combustion and electric power.
Honda Racing President Koji Watanabe and Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda at Suzuka Circuit. Watanabe says that Honda will have a say on the driver lineup when the Japanese carmaker begins a partnership with Aston Martin starting next season. |
Honda Racing
Honda will supply Aston Martin with new engines as the British team, which finished fifth in 2024, aims to move from the midfield to the front of the grid.
Watanabe praised the smooth talks between Aston Martin and Honda as the two companies work toward next season, where sweeping regulation changes could drastically shake up the pecking order.
Watanabe said that, while the new engine regulations pose a significant challenge, Honda's development is proceeding according to plan. And compared to when the manufacturer reentered the sport in 2015, Honda is in a much better position now.
'We had discontinued the project with Formula One so we were not prepared in 2015,' Watanabe said. 'We started from zero. Now we're not starting from zero, so it is a smoother development.'
Aston Martin also has one familiar face of note for Honda personnel: Ace engineer Adrian Newey, who has designed 12 constructors' championship-winning cars, formally joined the team in March after departing Red Bull a year ago, with his primary focus being on the 2026 car.
'It is an honor to work together again with Newey at Aston Martin,' Watanabe said. 'We will work together to create a competitive F1 car.'
The move to Aston Martin does come with at least one downside, however. While Red Bull essentially has four seats for drivers between the top team and the junior Racing Bulls team, Aston Martin only has the two available seats. What's more, one of those two seats is occupied by Lance Stroll, the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll, so opportunities for Honda-affiliated drivers like Tsunoda appear limited.
'The number of seats will be reduced. However, as for us, we will continue to voice our opinions as Honda in deciding the drivers for 2026 and beyond,' Watanabe said.
'Obviously the team has the final say in deciding which drivers join the team ... but the situation will be the same (as with Red Bull) where we will have our say.'
In recent weeks, there's been talk around the F1 paddock that the sport's next engine era could be short-lived. Some, including Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of the sport's governing body, have even floated the idea of a return to internal combustion engines powered with sustainable fuel, rather than continue with the hybrid engines that have been in use since 2014.
Watanabe declined to comment in detail on the issue ahead of a reported meeting among engine manufacturers set to take place at next weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.
Still, the Honda Racing boss made it clear that one of the reasons the automaker renewed its commitment to F1 was because of the hybrid electric formula.
'Our stance hasn't changed,' Watanabe said. 'Electric is important to us and that is the reason why we continue to join.'