The Honda Racing Company and Red Bull F1 team have confirmed that their technical support agreement will be extended through to the end of the 2025 season.
Honda was once Red Bull’s engine provider, but after quitting at the end of the 2021 season, the Japanese manufacturing company had agreed to a pact to offer technical support as Red Bull took on the engine production process as Red Bull Power Trains.
The agreement had been set to last through the end of the 2023 season, but Honda and the Milton Keynes-based Red Bull team have now announced a two-year extension to cover the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
The decision to extend the partnership for an additional two seasons will see it beyond the 2025 expiration of F1’s current engine regulations in anticipation of the introduction of a new engine design for the 2026 season.
Red Bull and its sister team Alpha Tauri are depicted to have Honda Racing Corporation as a sponsor. Honda’s capacity to support Red Bull, according to the team, is something it can continue to do despite its resources being more constrained as a result of the Honda group’s decision to leave Formula 1.
“Red Bull’s partnership with Honda has been an incredibly successful one and we are pleased that this will continue until the end of the current era of the FIA’s power unit regulations in 2025,” Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner said.
Koji Watanabe, Head of Corporate Communications Supervisory Unit at Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and President of Honda Racing Corporation, said, “We have agreed to continue supporting Red Bull Power Trains in Formula 1 through HRC, following Red Bull’s request to extend our current agreement, which HRC can meet within its existing resources.”
“Once again, we aim to use our involvement in the pinnacle of motorsport for the development of technologies and of our workforce.”
When the engine rules and regulations change in 2026, it has been widely rumored that Red Bull and German automaker Porsche are in talks to work together on the Red Bull Power Trains project. Both Porsche and Audi, another Volkswagen-owned auto brand, are also largely believed to be entering F1 at that time.
No official confirmation has been given as of yet. However, Horner said in a press conference before last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix that obstacles and caveats were still in play, although he did say they could cooperate if a deal was struck. Some reports that surfaced last week claimed a deal including Porsche buying a stake in the team were close.
