F1: Red Bull Confirms Honda Engine Switch
A 2 year partnership was announced with Honda, taking them up to the final year of the current engine regulations, as in 2021, when the new regs come into play, it is known that Aston Martin are wanting to make engines for F1 and presumably for Red Bull.
The move ends a 12-year partnership of Red Bull and Renault, since the team's 2nd year in F1, which yielded 57 wins so far, and 4 Driver's and Constructor's World Championships between 2010 and 2013 with Sebastian Vettel.
However since the introduction of the current V6 Turbo Hybrid formulae in 2014, Renault have lacked in horsepower, and therefore straight line speed, causing all Renault-powered teams to struggle.
In 2015, Red Bull suffered their worst season since 2008, with a total of 3 podiums between drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, and no wins, placing them 4th in the championship behind Mercedes, Ferrari, and family-run team Williams.
The car's lack of reliability, drivability and speed caused massive tension between Red Bull and Renault, with a split rumoured to happen for 2016.
This ultimately never happened, with neither Mercedes and Ferrari wanting to supply their rivals, and Honda looking to be a definite step back, with McLaren, the only Honda supplied team in 2015, down in 9th and effectively last, ahead of only Manor Marussia. In an effort to get Renault off their car, they formed a partnership with TAG Heuer, to rebadge the Renault engines. The team then became known as Red Bull-TAG Heuer instead of Red Bull-Renault.
Things looked better in 2016 and 17, with 1 win apiece for Max Verstappen and Ricciardo in 2016, and 2nd in the championship; and 3 wins overall in 2017 and 3rd in the championship. However, Christian Horner, team principle of Red Bull, and Helmut Marko, team advisor, were still not satisfied with the lack of pace and reliability compared with Mercedes and Ferrari. They wanted to be championship contenders.
In 2018, they may well be in contention for the Driver's title with Daniel Ricciardo, with 2 wins in the first 7 races. However in the first 4 races, the team suffered 2 double DNF's, caused by both reliability and mistakes from their drivers.
However despite this, Horner still does not believe they can fight for the title again with Renault, saying, "This multi-year agreement with Honda signals the start of an exciting new phase in Aston Martin Red Bull Racing's efforts to compete not just for grand prix wins but for what is always our goal - championship titles."
The move to Honda seems to many as a risk, given their return to F1 with McLaren in 2015 did not go to plan at all.
McLaren returned to a Honda partnership after 6 years without a title, and 2 years without a win, thinking that the return of the great partnership of McLaren Honda would return the team to the performance and dominance of the late 80's and early 90's. Instead, they ended 2015 with just 27 points, to Mercedes' 703.
2016 looked to be an improvement, with slightly better pace, but reliability still looking poor. The team finished 6th in the championship with 76 points, however they were still a long way off what they wanted, and Honda was promising much more in 2017.
With a completely redesigned engine in 2017, hopes were high at McLaren, however the new engine looked even worse than 2016, with only 30 points scored and back to 9th in the championship. Enough was enough.
With Ron Dennis out and Zak Brown in, the team promptly dropped Honda in favour of Renault, hoping the team can become contenders again. Honda was then picked up by Toro Rosso, Red Bull's junior team, sparking the first rumours of a Red Bull and Honda partnership in the future.
Immediately, STR-Honda impressed, with 4th at Bahrain with Pierre Gasly being the standout performance. Pace was there and so was reliability, while McLaren's reliability continued to struggle with Renault.
These would have both been factors in the decision to leave Renault for Honda in 2019, with Renault now only supplying McLaren and themselves.
