A return of Honda after all? Top men present in Austria
F1 News
- GPblog.com
The top of Honda will be present at the Austrian Grand Prix. That is what The Race has reported prior to the weekend. The question is what this means for the F1 future of Honda and Red Bull Racing.
Red Bull gets a visit
After ending with a world title for Max Verstappen, Honda disappeared from Formula 1 at the end of 2021. Yet the brand has not really disappeared. Red Bull's engine is still the Honda engine and the two parties are still working together on this. That cooperation would last until 2025.
Yet there are also rumours that Honda regrets its departure. The move in itself was remarkable, because after years of investment Red Bull could finally reap the rewards as it started winning races and titles, but just at the peak the Japanese manufacturer pulled the plug. Honda may now regret that conclusion, which was drawn during the corona pandemic.
Return of Honda
The presence of the Honda top in Spielberg will only fuel the rumours further. On Friday the meeting of the F1 Commission will take place in which the future F1 engines for 2026 will be discussed. If Honda indeed wants to return in 2026, it is logical that it wants to be present at that meeting.
In the long term it would be a possible return as a factory team, but in the short term there are other issues at stake. The Race thinks that Honda would also like to get back together with Red Bull. While Honda still does a lot of work behind the scenes, it gets very little branding in return. So in 2023, we might see Honda's name appearing on Red Bull's car again.