Red Bull technical boss Adrian Newey believes the decision to switch from Renault to Honda for the 2019 season will be a major boost for both the team and its fuel and oil supplier Mobil 1.
The energy drinks team has a deal to use Mobil 1's lubricants in its engines, whereas supplier Renault and its other customer team McLaren use BP/Castrol, which means they benefit from a performance advantage through customised oil and fuel.
Switching to Honda will effectively see Red Bull become a manufacturer team and that means Mobil 1 will be able to work with Honda to develop not only its own products, but also impact the engine development side which Newey believes will be very beneficial.
"Over the last few years Renault did a superb job in the V8 era," he said. "They were very open to developing things such as the blown-exhaust, which helped us tremendously, so we had a very good partnership with them.
"More recently in the hybrid era we have become their customer so they’re very much focusing on their own team, so the opportunity to work with a manufacturer rather than take what we’re given is very appealing.
"Honda have a tremendous record in Formula 1, very innovative engineers, and for us it's a real positive and something we’re very much looking forward to."
He added: "I think also for our partner Mobil it will be a very good move. Mobil with Renault have done a great job, but they’ve been somewhat restricted in their access to dynos and to develop an oil which is suitable for an engine that has been developed for different manufacturers fuel and oil.
"By going to Honda I think it will allow Mobil much more freedom to work with the manufacturer where they can actually influence the design of the engine, not simply to develop a product for an already existing specification."
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