Red Bull hoping to 'build on success' when celebrating 50th race with Honda

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Red Bull hoping to 'build on success' when celebrating 50th race with Honda

The partnership has yielded 11 race wins since 2019

Ewan Gale

Wednesday 25 August 2021 18:28

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has called on his team to build on the success achieved with Honda ahead of the 50th race of the partnership at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Honda joined Red Bull's effort in 2019 and since then has helped push the team forward to become serious F1 championship contenders this season, only trailing Mercedes in the standings by virtue of two torrid races before the summer break.

The Japanese manufacturer is withdrawing from the sport at the end of the season with Red Bull taking over the power unit IP.

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"Our relationship with Honda has grown from strength to strength since we started working together at the beginning of the 2019 Formula One season," said Horner.

"We are enormously proud of our joint success to date, delivering 11 wins and 32 podiums from 49 race starts.

"Spa will mark our 50th race together and this is a great moment to reflect on what we have achieved so far, build on that success and also thank everyone at Honda for their extraordinary effort and commitment, which has enabled us to be in the position to fight for a championship this year."

Honda Racing technical director Toyoharu Tanabe added: "In a short space of time, we have achieved some great results in this hybrid era, such as our first win in Austria in 2019 and first pole in Hungary that same year, as well as our first double podium with Red Bull in Bahrain 2020 and, most recently, the fact we have taken five consecutive wins so far this year.

"Honda had been back in Formula One for four years before joining up with Red Bull and we had not even scored a podium finish, so we have come a long way to be now fighting for the championship together with Red Bull.

"This is down to a lot of hard work and excellent communication from everyone at Honda and Red Bull.

"On the eve of our 50th race, I want to thank Red Bull Racing for their open and fair approach and the trust they showed in us, sharing the same goal. In addition, we must not forget the contribution from the drivers in that time.

Pointing to the development year Honda did with Toro Rosso before linking with Red Bull, Tanabe-san added: "Another key factor was our excellent cooperation with Scuderia Toro Rosso back in 2018, which laid the groundwork for partnering both teams as from the following year and we are proud of what we have achieved so far.

"There are only around a dozen races still remaining for Honda’s F1 project and we will all be pushing as hard as possible to finish this adventure on a high."