Red Bull opts for Honda engines for the next two seasons

“The multinational agreement with Honda marks the beginning of an exciting new phase in the efforts of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing to compete not only for Grand Prix wins, but also for what has always been our goal: the Championship titles.” This is how Christian Horner, technical director of the Austrian team, announced the agreement with the Japanese engine manufacturer for the next two seasons.

For many, Red Bull’s decision to opt for Honda engines for the next two seasons may seem a certainly risky decision, judging by what we have seen so far. But Horner appears to have it clear: “We have always made decisions like this dispassionately and with only one criterion in mind: do we believe the result will allow us to compete at a higher level? After careful consideration and evaluation, we are confident that this partnership with Honda is the right direction for the team,” says the technical director of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Team.

For Horner, the three disappointing years of Honda’s collaboration with McLaren seem to have been forgotten after the scarce six months the Japanese engine maker has spent working with Toro Rosso, the sister team of his squad: “We are impressed,” says Horner, “with Honda’s commitment to Formula 1, by the rapid steps they have taken in recent times with our sister team, Scuderia Toro Rosso (which started in 2018), and by the scope of their ambition, which matches ours: to keep working with Honda in the coming years and race together in pursuit of the greatest prizes in F1.”

Evidently, at Red Bull they know something they are not saying, because betting on Honda after the poor results achieved so far seems, at the very least, and a priori, a whole risky operation, especially when more than half of the current season is still to be completed, during which they still have to compete and aspire to the maximum with Renault, their travelling companion for more than a decade. “We would like,” says Horner, “to thank Renault for the last 12 years of collaboration, a period during which we have lived incredible moments together. Our focus for the rest of this season remains to deliver the best possible results to our fans in the 2018 Championship.”

For Honda, the agreement is especially beneficial. Extending its collaboration with Red Bull beyond its presence at Toro Rosso will allow them to accelerate the development of its power units. According to Takahiro Hachigo, president and representative director of Honda Motor Co. Ltd, “After establishing a good relationship with Scuderia Toro Rosso, we have decided to extend our participation in Formula 1 to the other team of the Red Bull family, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, starting in the 2019 season. Having two teams means we will be able to access twice the data we had before. We believe that working with Toro Rosso and Red Bull Racing will allow us, by creating two solid alliances, to get closer to our goal of winning races and championships.”

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