Honda will have all the deliciousness taken by Ford returning to F1. Red Bull Racing announced its partnership with Ford from 2026 to 2023 at a new car launch event held in New York on Friday, February 3rd. ‘Ford F1 Return’ dominated the headlines over the display RB19.
It also means that the partnership between Honda and Red Bull will end in 2025. As a result, Honda ended up taking everything to Ford at just the right time as Formula 1 regains popularity and moves toward sustainability. In the first place, Honda was unplanned from the F1 participation. While Ford and Audi set a five-year preparation period until the return to F1 in 2026 when the new F1 regulations were introduced, it was in 2015 that they started the fourth phase of F1 activities as McLaren’s works partner. It was 2014, “one year later” when F1 engines entered the “power unit era”. The one-year delay in entering F1 made a big difference, and Honda’s F1 engine, which had many troubles and could not even run properly, disappointed McLaren and was abandoned in three years. Red Bull saved Honda. Adopted Honda’s F1 engine in Toro Rosso from 2018 and gave time for development. Once its potential is confirmed, the original Red Bull Racing will also adopt Honda’s F1 engine from 2019. Five years after returning to F1, Honda won its first victory in the fourth season. However, in October 2020, when the title was finally in sight, Honda decided to withdraw from F1 at the end of the 2021 season. “Realization of carbon neutrality by 2050” was said to be the reason for withdrawal, but the previous year F1 had declared “carbon neutrality by 2030”. There were many question marks at that point. 2020 is the year the COVID-19 pandemic began, bringing economies to a halt around the world. I couldn’t see the future. In 2021, the final year of Honda’s F1, Max Verstappen won the F1 World Champion. However, the F1 Japan GP was canceled for three years, and Honda withdrew without running the home Grand Prix at Suzuka during F1 participation. In a sense, Red Bull has been betrayed by Honda by announcing its withdrawal from the partnership just one year later. That would force Red Bull to set up its own engine division, Red Bull Powertrains, to “control our own future”, according to team principal Christian Horner. At this point, the future of Red Bull’s long-term relationship with Honda came to an end. After withdrawing from F1, it was initially in the form of technical support until Red Bull Powertrains’ system was in place, but inexplicably, Honda supplied F1 engines to Red Bull under the cover of HRC (Honda Racing) even after withdrawing from F1. signed a contract to continue until 2025. F1 fans do not think that Honda has withdrawn, after all, the name HRC will not penetrate, and from the 2022 F1 Japan GP the HONDA logo will be posted on Red Bull’s F1 machine, and from 2023 Honda RBPT It even got the name of the engine. Red Bull has offset the cost of playing F1 to Honda with marketing. In the meantime, F1 has exploded in popularity in America with the unexpected blockbuster of the Netflix documentary Drive to Survive. In 2022, the F1 Miami GP was added to record the highest ever audience rating for F1 live broadcasting in the United States, and a total of 400,000 spectators visited the Circuit of the Americas at the F1 America GP. The F1 Las Vegas GP will also be held in 2023. F1 itself has moved from Europe, which is not Honda’s market, to America, the main market that boasts over 50% of the European market. And in 2026, the F1 engine will shift to electrification with a 50:50 ratio of internal combustion engine and hybrid, and will undergo a transformation to meet the market needs of using 100% sustainable fuel. For automakers, the American market, hybrid technology and clean energy provide the perfect platform. In response to this trend, General Motors, which was indifferent to F1, reacted and built a cooperative system with Andretti, who is aiming to participate in F1. Honda has registered as a manufacturer in the 2026 F1 engine regulations, showing its intention to return to F1. But in the meantime, Red Bull was ready to build its own internal combustion engine and all it needed was hybrid technology. Presumably Honda wants to get involved not only in hybrid technology, but also in internal combustion engines on 100% sustainable fuels. Therefore, it no longer meets Red Bull’s needs. That’s probably why they didn’t choose Honda as their partner for 2026. According to Christian Horner, with Honda, “our paths for the 2026 season are different.” Ford was there. Negotiations had already progressed by the time Honda registered as a manufacturer. Ford will have a champion team called Red Bull, the American market, and a platform for hybrid technology. Immediately, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez created a video of an electric car running on a circuit to appeal their technical capabilities. Honda ended up taking it all with Ford. Even if it decides to return to F1 in 2026, it is in a situation where there is no team to partner with. Mercedes customers McLaren, Aston Martin, Williams and Haas wanting to end their dependence on Ferrari, but there is little faith in Honda, the classic example of F1’s most abhorrent ‘enter and leave’ strategy. It should be. There is also a way to team up with a new entrant team, but it will be as tough as the third term, which only won one win. As a result, Honda is likely to miss a big fish by unplanned participation and withdrawal.