High confidence: 'Didn't believe Honda wouldn't build a winning engine'
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- Sam Godber
In 2019, Red Bull Racing switched from Renault engines to Honda engines. Sister team AlphaTauri (Toro Rosso) did so a year earlier in 2018. Former AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost was confident from the start that the partnership with Honda would succeed.
Red Bull takes title at home Honda
The partnership between Honda and the Red Bull organisation began in 2017 and culminated this season. Indeed, Red Bull Racing won the constructors' title in Japan, Honda's home country. Since last season, Honda is no longer officially the engine supplier of both Red Bull teams, but a partner. However, the engine driven by both teams is a further development of the earlier official Honda engine.
Tost was confident about Honda collaboration
In an interview with Honda Racing, the former team boss expressed no doubt that the collaboration would result in successes. "I simply could not believe that Honda is not able to build a power unit which can win in Formula One. I was 100% convinced that with good cooperation you can win with Honda."
In the end, Tost was proved right, as championships were won by Red Bull in both 2021, 2022 and 2023. "In 2017 some people in the paddock said: ‘how can you decide to work together with Honda?’ and I just said to them: ‘please, ask me in five years’. In the end, I think it’s clear we made the correct decision!" the Austrian explained.