Red Bull Racing To Switch To Honda F1 Engines

Earlier today, Red Bull Racing announced that it will split with Renault at the end of the season in favour of Honda’s F1 engines. The move ends a 12-year relationship that earned the team four consecutive world title doubles from 2010 to 2013. The team believes the switch will give them the best chance to compete for titles again.

Keen Formula 1 fans will know that the relationship between Red Bull and Renault had begun to fray since the introduction of turbo hybrid engines in 2014. Since then, Renault has failed to match the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari powertrains.

“This multi-year agreement with Honda signals the start of an exciting new phase in Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s efforts to compete not just for grand prix winds but for what is always our goal - championship titles,” said team principal Christian Horner.

“We have always taken decisions such as this dispassionately and with only one criteria in mind - do we believe the outcome will allow us to compete at a higher level? After careful consideration and evaluation, we are certain this partnership with Honda is the right decision for the team,” he added.

The latest move gives Honda access to data from both Red Bull Racing as well as its junior team, Toro Rosso. “Having two teams means we can access twice as much data as previously. We believe that working with Toro Rosso and Red Bull Racing will allow us to get closer to our goal of winning races and championships, building two strong partnerships,” said Honda president Takahiro Hachigo.

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Last year, McLaren ended its contract with Honda as it thought their engines were holding the team back. Instead, the Woking-based F1 outfit has been buying customer engines from Renault for this season. However, its decision has started to come under question as they have failed to improve their performance this season. In fact, their cars are over a second per lap slower than the Red Bull machines that use the same engine.

This season, Red Bull Racing have been plagued by reliability issues with the Renault engine. However, Horner was quick to say, "We have sometimes had our differences but Renault has always worked tirelessly and to the best of its ability to provide us with a competitive power unit. That is still the case today and we would like to thank the Renault team, and particularly the guys in our garage at every race, for their unstinting commitment and we look forward to ending our partnership on a high come the end of this season. Our focus for the rest of this year is still very much on delivering the best results possible in the 2018 championship."

Meanwhile, Renault are trying to improve their engines and build their own factory team into title contenders for the next season.