Red Bull and Honda extend "collaboration" beyond F1

Max Verstappen and Honda's Toyoharu Tanabe — Photo: © LAT Images

Red Bull

Red Bull and Honda extend "collaboration" beyond F1

Honda leaves the sport at the end of the season

Ewan Gale

Thursday 7 October 2021 09:41

Red Bull and Honda have explained how their partnership will continue beyond the Japanese manufacturer's withdrawal from F1 at the end of the season.

Honda is leaving the sport to pursue its own environmental goals after returning to F1 with McLaren in 2015.

In February, Red Bull completed an agreement to take on the power unit IP from Japan for future years with Honda to support the team through 2022 as the Milton Keynes-based team continues to strengthen its facilities before full control is taken by Red Bull in 2023.

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The ties will not be severed when Honda's F1 involvement stops, however, with the two parties agreeing to work in unison with their respective young driver programmes.

The Honda Formula Dream and Red Bull Junior programmes will continue to work together in order to promote young Japanese drivers through the junior ranks, following in the footsteps of AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda.

There will also be further collaboration in other forms of motorsport in order to expand the reach of both brands and "in particular, promote Honda's innovative mobility products".

Honda chief officer for brand and communication operations Koji Watanabe said: “I’m glad that we have reached an agreement with Red Bull Group covering all the details of the IP rights for the F1 Power Unit and in this way, Honda can still contribute to the motor racing world.

"We are now working hard to strengthen HRC’s structure, so that it can ensure our fans will be able to continue to enjoy Honda’s role in all types of motorsport.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner added: “Red Bull’s collaboration with Honda has been enormously successful and while our relationship in Formula 1 is changing, neither of us wish for that to be the end of the story.

"We are very pleased that our ambitious and exciting Red Bull Powertrains project will be strongly supported by Honda, technically and operationally, in 2022 and this will help ensure that Red Bull’s transition to the status of chassis and power unit manufacturer is seamless.

"Equally as exciting is the news that our collaboration with Honda will extend to a variety of motorsport activities, from driver development to other racing disciplines and even across the wider sporting world.

"This stretch of Honda’s Formula 1 voyage is coming to an end but together we are embarking on a new and fascinating journey.”