29/01/2022
NEWS STORY
Helmut Marko has revealed that Honda will continue to supply Red Bull's engines until 2025, ahead of the introduction of the new formula in 2026.
Up until now it was thought that while Red Bull - and Alpha Tauri - would use Honda engines this season, from 2023 the Austrian company's new powertrains division would take over.
However, Helmut Marko has revealed that Honda will continue to build the engines at its Sakura facility, with Red Bull given added support courtesy of the new intermediary company that has been set up with former Honda boss, Masashi Yamamoto at the helm.
All of which flies in the face of the original intention which was for Red Bull to take over the IP of the Honda power unit in the run up to the introduction of the new formula.
"We have now found a completely different solution to the one originally envisaged," Marko tells Austrian magazine, Autorevue. "The engines will be manufactured in Japan until 2025, we will not touch them at all.
"That means that the rights and all these things will remain with the Japanese," he adds, "which is important for 2026 because it makes us newcomers."
Of course, this will add to the speculation linking Red Bull to the Volkswagen Group which is considering entering F1 as a manufacturer, with both Audi and Porsche rumoured to be looking to partner with an existing team.
Marko suggests that Honda's change of heart was largely influenced by Max Verstappen's title win.
"In the course of our ever-greater successes, a certain rethinking has taken place among the Japanese," says the Austrian. "Also that they could of course use the battery knowledge for their electrification phase.
"It was initially planned that they would only make our engines for 2022, but now it has been decided that this will continue until 2025, which is of course a huge advantage for us. This means we only have to make fine adjustments and calibrations.
"The plant will go into full operation in May/June," he adds. "The final decision to do it ourselves was conditional on everything being frozen. Because otherwise we wouldn't have had a chance with this complex thing."
All of which gives credence to theories put forward by our esteemed Max Noble, who suggested that setting up 'third party', joint operations was a possible means of circumventing any budget caps, despite the best efforts of the FIA's financial forensics team.