Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri have reaffirmed their commitment to Formula 1 in the wake of power unit partner Honda announcing its withdrawal after 2021.
Red Bull joined forces with Honda in 2019, a year after AlphaTauri – then Toro Rosso – linked up with the marque, and last year renewed the deals to cover the 2021 campaign.
Honda announced on Friday that it will be quitting Formula 1 at the end of 2021, leaving Red Bull and AlphaTauri without a power unit supplier from 2022.
Under Formula 1 regulations if a team cannot find a new power unit supplier then the manufacturer with the fewest customers will be obliged to supply them.
That manufacturer is currently Renault, which previously had a long-standing relationship with Red Bull, and which will lose sole customer McLaren for 2021.
All 10 teams recently signed up to the 2021-25 Concorde Agreement and Red Bull has stressed that it remains fully committed to Formula 1.
“As a team we understand how difficult it has been for Honda Motor Company to reach the decision to step back from Formula 1 at the end of the 2021 season,” said Red Bull boss Christian Horner.
“The shifting focus within the automotive industry has led to Honda’s decision to re-deploy their resources and we understand and respect the reasoning behind this.
“Their decision presents obvious challenges for us as a team but we have been here before and with our strength in depth we are well prepared and equipped to respond effectively, as we have proven in the past.
“Whilst we are disappointed not to continue our partnership with Honda, we are enormously proud of our joint success, delivering five wins and 15 podiums for both Red Bull owned teams and we thank everyone at Honda for their extraordinary efforts and commitment.
“Our joint focus for the remainder of the 2020 and 2021 seasons are unchanged, to fight for victories and challenge for the championship.
“As a signatory to Formula 1’s latest Concorde Agreement, Red Bull Racing remains committed to the sport in the long term and we look forward to embarking on a new era of innovation, development and success.
“As a group, we will now take the time afforded to us to further evaluate and find the most competitive power unit solution for 2022 and beyond.”
RBR can say whatever, the reality is they’re going to face tremendous difficulties. They now need an engine for 2 teams, but they also need to convince Verstappen (of which they are dependant). I’m not very confident that they’ll stay in f1.
The engine supply rule should be changed, to the effect that all engine suppliers are obliged to provide engines to any team which wishes to buy them, with the only exception being that the engine manufacturer may opt to keep their engine solely for their own factory team. If they sell to any other team, they must be prepared to sell engines to as many teams as require them. Obviously, it’s highly improbable that any manufacturer team would wish to buy engines from another, it would be hugely damaging and embarrassing publicity, but they wouldn’t actually be barred from doing so.