Red Bull and Honda F1 partnership kept alive thanks to odd contract clause

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Red Bull and Honda F1 partnership kept alive thanks to odd contract clause

Red Bull had no choice

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Monday 22 June 2026 19:52

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Red Bull's F1 association with Honda may have ended at the end of 2025 but a contract quirk means the partnership hasn't ended yet.

Honda first started their Red Bull agreement in 2018 by supplying sister team Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) before then also serving Red Bull a year later.

Team boss at the time Christian Horner had been furious with the service of Renault in the hybrid era that started in 2014, claiming they were holding back the team's potential. Horner demanded an engine that provided the necessary power to help Adrian Newey's excellent chassis on the Red Bull cars. In came Honda.

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Straight away Honda were on the pace of the Tag Heuer badged Renault engines before them and one big upgrade later for 2021 helped propel Max Verstappen to his first F1 world championship at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. However, Honda by this point had already decided to scale back from F1.

Honda didn't leave Red Bull completely from 2022, helping the team build their own power units in an arrangement that lasted until the end of the 2025 season.

Now Honda are working with Aston Martin, while Red Bull are now in collaboration with Ford. But the Red Bull and Honda partnership is not over yet.

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Why are Honda still working with Red Bull?

An agreement was reached between the teams for Honda to still supply Red Bull engines until 2027 for TPC (Testing Previous Cars) sessions.

Due to the radical nature of F1 cars in 2026, F1 rules have deemed that use of last year's cars or older for teams is now acceptable for TPC. Previously the cars had to be two years old or older.

Red Bull are not able to put their new engines in the 2025 cars and as such have struck an agreement with Honda for this season and 2027 so they can fulfil their TPC days using their RB21.

GPFans understands that Honda are contracted to provide Red Bull with 2025 specification engines for Red Bull and Racing Bull's TPC requirements for this season and next.

Yuki Tsunoda recently tested for Red Bull in TPC rules

Furthermore Honda engineers will also participate in the tests where needed for both Red Bull teams.

However, this is not part of a technical collaboration or agreement between Red Bull and Honda, and will end as soon as Laurent Mekies' team have a RBPT-Ford powered car that can satisfy TPC rules.

Red Bull performed a TPC test last week at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit after the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Yuki Tsunoda was behind the wheel of the Honda powered RB21, completing over two race distances.