Plans can't keep up with the changes, and Honda will continue to supply engines to Red Bull until 2025!

In response to Honda's decision to withdraw from F1 in the 2021 season, Red Bull Racing announced the establishment of "Red Bull Power Unit Assembly Company (RBPT)" in February 2021 and acquired the intellectual property rights of Honda's power units, and Honda also announced a follow-up technical support plan in October of the same year, so that "Red Bull PowerTrain" can have the ability to produce power units independently after a year of technical assistance.

However, the cooperation plan between the two sides has changed recently, and Red Bull Motorsport consultant Helmut Marko said that their current plans with Honda on the power unit have changed, and Honda will continue to supply the power unit to two of Red Bull's teams (Red Bull Racing and Alpha Tauri) until the end of 2025.

The decision by both sides will allay concerns about "quality control" issues that may arise during the current power unit transition period, and will also allow RBPT to focus more on its power unit project under the new 2026 regulations. At the moment, the details of the changed plan have not yet been finally announced, including questions such as whether the "Honda" trademark will continue to appear on The Red Bull 2022 car.

In an interview with Autoreveue, Marko explained: "We have now also found a solution that is completely different from what was originally envisioned. The power unit will be produced in Japan until 2025, and we will not touch this area during this period, which means that the intellectual property of the power unit still belongs to Honda, which allows us to become a new supplier in 2026. ”

"Our initial plan with Honda was that they would only support us until 2022. But now that the deadline has been extended to 2025, it's a huge advantage for us and means we only need to make minor adjustments. ”

Such a change may be a win-win strategy for Red Bull Racing and Honda. In addition to the fact that the FIA has begun planning for the new version of the power unit that will be scheduled for 2026, it has also decided to freeze the development of the current power unit in two phases after the adaptation of E10 fuel from this year: the engine, turbocharger, heat recovery system and fuel will be frozen on March 1 before the start of the season, and the kinetic energy recovery system, battery and central electronic system will be frozen on September 1 in the second half of the season; although this decision is to promote the development of the next generation of power units, it can also be regarded as a reaction to Red Bull Racing. As well as the concessions behind the support of Honda.

In this way, the "Red Bull Power Unit Assembly Company (RBPT)" that does not need to produce power units for the time being will not be regarded as a power unit supplier, so that RBPT, which has not yet been officially operated, can focus on the next generation of power unit research and development plans that currently have a general direction but have not yet determined the details, and compared with Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault, RBPT as a supplier of the new regulations may be able to obtain a series of R&D benefits.

Meanwhile, Masashi Yamamoto, the former head of Honda's F1 program, has left and set up a consulting firm to provide consultancy services between Red Bull and Honda. So, as for whether Honda's trademark is likely to continue to appear on Red Bull Racing, I believe this is one of the main things that Yamamoto needs to deal with at the moment.