Official: Honda announces its withdrawal from F1

The news was announced this Friday morning. Honda will fulfill its contract with the Red Bull and AlphaTauri teams before ending its F1 program at the end of the 2021 season.

In a statement published on its website, Honda indicates that it now wants to focus on a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. In short, the Japanese manufacturer is putting all its resources into “research and development of hydrogen vehicles” and “batteries for electric vehicles.”

Honda is therefore betting on green energy and is leaving Formula 1, after its long-awaited return in 2015 as McLaren’s engine supplier. It was a difficult collaboration: the Japanese brand did not live up to expectations, and the partnership quickly ended in a divorce between the two parties, officially pronounced at the end of 2017.

The Japanese firm then powered AlphaTauri in 2018 and Red Bull in 2019. This partnership allowed the Honda engine to achieve 5 Grand Prix victories, 4 with Red Bull and 1 with AlphaTauri, that of Pierre Gasly in Italy on September 6, 2020.

Nevertheless, despite this resurgence in performance, the engine manufacturer did not wish to continue in the premier discipline of motorsport beyond the 2021 season, leaving F1 with three engine manufacturers: Mercedes, Ferrari, and Renault.

What Future for Red Bull?

This withdrawal from Formula 1 will leave Red Bull and AlphaTauri in a delicate situation since the two teams that signed the Concorde Agreements (to be present until 2025) are without an engine supplier for 2022.

Are we heading towards a return of Red Bull with Renault? The brand with the diamond previously powered the Austrian team, achieving 4 drivers’ and constructors’ titles from 2010 to 2013. The beginning of the hybrid era then marked more strained relations, which ended in 2019 when the two parties split.

However, appendix 6 of the F1 sporting regulations concerning power units for the period 2021-2025 specifies: « If a team does not have engines, the manufacturer supplying the fewest teams must be designated. ». In the current situation, this would be Renault, which will no longer have a customer team from 2021.

If Christian Horner thanks Honda today, the team principal of Red Bull wants to take the time to evaluate and find the best solution for 2022 and beyond.

According to you, will Red Bull return to Renault from 2022?