Can Red Bull Retain Honda Power Unit in 2026? Watanabe Answers
Jul.17 - Mohammed Ben Sulayem may be keeping hopes for a return to loud V8 power alive, but Formula 1's engine manufacturers are fully focused on 2026.
A series of meetings earlier this season investigated a potential U-turn from the electrification route, especially amid rumours the 2026 rules could seriously slow the pace and badly affect the racing spectacle.
Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe, however, played down suggestions that the FIA's latest comments indicate that V8s could be back on the table.
"For the time being, the talks have come to a halt," he told the Japanese specialist source as-web.jp.
"Therefore, we, the power unit manufacturers, are now concentrating on 2026. However, as long as the ideals currently held by the FIA remain unchanged, I expect that the discussions will start again."
Honda has made no secret of its push for electrification to remain central to Formula 1 engine power.
"We are aware of the current situation in F1," Watanabe insisted. "Honda's desire for F1 to remain the pinnacle of motorsports remains unchanged. We will continue to discuss what power unit is appropriate for that.
"Honda's current position is that we believe that electrification is a very important element in moving towards a sustainable future."
Red Bull is losing Honda to Aston Martin for 2026 and beyond, with Max Verstappen's current team instead heading its own engine subsidiary in collaboration with Ford.
Some think Red Bull-Ford's 2026 unit is currently so underpowered that the team has asked Honda if it can keep using Japanese-made engines next year.
"That is not possible at all," Watanabe said. "Even if we were asked to do it now, it would be too late to make it in time for 2026.
"The chances are zero."
Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has played down the chatter about Red Bull-Ford's problems.
"Gazing into a crystal ball is impossible," he told f1-insider.com.
"Four things are crucial with the new engine - the battery circuitry, the combustion engine, the software, and - not to be underestimated - the mandatory biofuel.
"I trust our engineers and am receiving positive feedback."
Mercedes is tipped to lead - and potentially dominate - the field with its 2026 power unit, but that could leave customer McLaren still out in front.
"Look where they were three or four years ago when we made the deal for them to use our fast engines for the next few years," Toto Wolff lamented to Sky Italia. "They were 18th then, so it seemed like a pretty easy decision.
"With what we know today, I don't know if it was the smartest decision of my life," the Mercedes boss and co-owner smiled.
Honda is also confident about its 2026 competitiveness, especially with Adrian Newey at his famous drawing board at Aston Martin.
"Aston Martin has already made various requests to improve its competitiveness," Watanabe revealed. "We don't know if they came from Newey, but we know that Andy (Cowell) also previously led Mercedes' power unit department, so he has a good understanding of the power unit side of things.
"It is an advantage for us to have someone like that on the car development side and to be able to proceed with discussions," the HRC president added.
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Question? Is Torger part owner of the hpp engine factory too, i thought it was just the F1 team, and the engine factory was 100% Merc owner but i could be wrong
Not only have the claims about Red Bull's PU project with Ford's technical assistance totally lacked concrete evidence, neither have Red Bull said anything about Honda, so Watanabe was right to make clear that changing things at this point would be impossible because teams need to know well in advance which manufacturer's PU they're going to use for the following season so that they can properly design their cars around a given PU's cooling & other requirements, which isn't an easy task with hybrid powertrains, so indeed too late in any case.
Even otherwise, backing down from the PU project after a lot of investment would be foolish, not to mention that Ford's direct involvement would be an additional hurdle.
Therefore, nothing will change, & Aston Martin will likely remain the only Honda-powered team throughout the next cycle because only McLaren, Williams, or Alpine could be viable options for PU manufacturer changes further into the cycle.
Ultimately, Alpine clearly wanted to become Mercedes-powered over everything else.
On the other hand, McLaren would have a lot to lose, albeit even Williams is unlikely to change for the sake of changing, especially if the Mercedes PU proves the best.
RB could dump there RBPT it would just be a huge tax write down, kids will stil buy Pop, as for Ford they are just providing the battery tech, AND if they did , wouldnt Honda under Fia regs be liable to supply a team with an engine (being the engine supplier with least customers) thats what the rules say isnt it, regardless of what Honda they are publicly saying.....
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