Honda Refuses to Cut Off Red Bull Completely as Championship Winning Manufacturer Continues to Leave a Mark

In a sport that has been rightfully dominated by car manufacturers, for the most part, Red Bull, despite being an energy drink brand, has managed to rewrite the history books. However, the Milton Keynes-based team has its limitations. For one, all these years, they have had to rely on other engine manufacturers for the power unit for their cars. Their most recent association with Honda officially ended in 2021. However, there is now some interesting development in the partnership of the championship-winning duo.

After Honda announced its intention to withdraw from F1 at the end of the 2021 season, Red Bull created RBPT (Red Bull Powertrains) with the help of the former partners. But as per recent developments, Honda is planning to make a comeback. 

The Japanese brand will now share naming rights for the 2023 RBPT Engine! The name will change to ‘Honda RBPT’. Red Bull and Honda’s relationship is pretty strong as well. Moreover, Max Verstappen coincidently won his second title this season at Honda’s home track, in Japan.

Red Bull and Honda enjoyed a very successful recent campaign. They won 17 races last season, with Max Verstappen winning 15 of them while Sergio Perez won the remaining 2. The Austrian team will hope that their fruitful partnership can yield positive results next season as well.

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Red Bull has dominated the grid with some powerful performances this year. However, with the cost-cap penalty for the year 2021, they don’t expect the next season to be as simple as the last one.

Max Verstappen believes the cost-cap penalty will hurt Red Bull next season

Ever since Red Bull was found guilty of overspending, things gave been uncertain as to how well the Milton-Keynes outfit would come out of it. Not only were they fined $7m, but 10% of their wind tunnel time was also reduced. However, the Dutchman has all the faith in his team.

Verstappen told Auto Motor und Sport, “That will hurt us. But I’m confident my team can pull it off and we’ll get off to a good start. We know where to start and what to work on” [Translated from Google]

The Dutch Lion further stated, “If we were at a loss as to which direction to march in, it would be an even greater problem. Over the course of the year, we will learn how much we actually suffer from it.”

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The Milton-Keynes team finished the season a massive 205 points ahead of Ferrari. The massive gap was only fair after the season-long masterclass from Red Bull. However, can they brush off the cost-cap penalties and win again, regardless?