Honda boss makes clear that his company is not willing to provide a 'safety net' for Red Bull should its decision to provide its own engines prove wrong.

Clearly aware that Renault had made a hash of the hybrid formula that it had pushed so hard for, Red Bull was facing a dilemma in terms of finding an alternative.

Eventually, it opted to take a gamble by signing a deal that saw Honda supply its engines to sister team Toro Rosso, the Japanese manufacturer still recovering from its disastrous time with McLaren.

Using the Faenza-based outfit as a guinea pig, a year later Red Bull began using Honda power units and the titles slowly began to follow.

In 2021 however, before the first of those titles had been won, Honda announced that it was to withdraw from F1, but would continue to supply and support Red Bull until the end of 2024, though this agreement was subsequently extended until the end of 2025.

When the rules overhaul for 2026 was announced, Red Bull looked set to partner with Porsche until the German marque announced that it would not be returning to F1, instead its sister Audi was to take a place on the grid.

Having rebadged the Honda engines as RBPT (Red Bull Power Train), Red Bull, still determined to go it alone, found an alternative partner in Ford, while, enthused by the new regulations, Honda opted to return to the sport in its own right, agreeing a works deal with Aston Martin.

The RBPT unit was not only the Honda engine, the Japanese manufacturer was still giving its full support, and it is clear that the Austrian team's current struggles are about the car and not the engine.

Long before Christian Horner's sacking there were doubts over Max Verstappen's future at Red Bull, one of the Dutchman's main concerns being that 'homemade' engine.

Of course the four-time world champion has good reason to be worried, for building a championship winning car is one thing, providing your own competitive engine quite another.

However, Honda Racing Corporation president, Koji Watanabe has dismissed any talk of his company providing a safety net should Red Bull's power unit venture come to grief.

"That is not possible at all," he tells AS Web. "Even if we were asked to do it, it would be too late to make it in time for 2026.

"The chances are zero," he insists.

Referring to progress with Aston Martin, Watanabe is pleased with progress.

"Of course, that is a power unit for testing and not the final specification," he admits. "We combine the latest products at the time with each other at the testing stage, and we do tests in the UK and in Japan.

"We don't do the tests at the same time," he adds. "When we do it in Japan, we do it in Japan only, and it's not just the things that are tested, but also the people who are present at the same time, and HRC staff and Aston Martin staff work together, and we've already done multiple tests.

"The gearboxes that Aston Martin is producing are gradually approaching the final specification, and we will continue to test them."

Speaking to the sport's official website, Watanabe is keen to make clear that Honda's return to the sport as a works supplier bears no relation to that disastrous period with McLaren.

"We had discontinued the project with Formula One so we were not prepared in 2015," he says. "We started from zero. Now we're not starting from zero, so it is a smoother development."

Team boss, Andy Cowell, who previously oversaw Mercedes engine programme, is happy with progress.

"The works been going on for many, many months so the design of the Honda power unit is very much fitting hand in glove with the back of our monocoque and the front of our transmission," he explains. "The hardware has been tested in Sakura and our transmission has been tested here at Silverstone as well as on the back of the power unit in Sakura.

"There are daily meetings and then there are regular more senior level meetings to check in to make sure that we're all working in the right direction.

"It is a transformation going from a customer team to a works team at the same time as all the regulation changes and the new factory and all the new equipment," he admits. "It's a huge transformation for everybody in our team. But I'm really impressed with the enthusiasm that everybody's got.

"Everybody wants to get to the front. Everybody wants to do well. Everybody's open-minded to making changes in the way we work in responsibilities and so on. Everybody's busy, everybody's making lots of change, but it's enjoyable change."

One cannot help but feel that confidence isn't quite so high at RBPT.