After careful consideration, Red Bull Racing has announced that it will part with Renault and switch to Honda as the engine supplier for 2019-2020.
Red Bull has been with Renault for over a decade and has won all of its championships with the French constructors. Red Bull’s sister team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, switched to Honda in 2018 and the Energy Drinks team closely monitored the progress of both engine manufacturers over the course of the season.
After weeks of evaluation, the Milton Keynes-based team opted for the Japanese manufacturer instead of the factory team. Red Bull Racing has signed a two-year deal with Honda to review current engine regulations. The deal would come into effect in 2019 and result in both Honda partner teams driving identical engines. The energy drink team has decided to stick to the race under the name Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.
In support of their decision, team boss Christian Horner said: “We were impressed by Honda’s involvement in Formula 1, by the quick steps they have taken with our sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso and by the range of their ambitions that have ours .
“This multi-year agreement with Honda marks the beginning of an exciting new phase in Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s endeavors not just to fight for Grand Prix wins, but for whatever our goal is – championship titles.”
Honda and Renault will both equip two teams in the future. Honda would partner with Toro Rosso and Red Bull, while Renault would supply its factory team as well as McLaren.
Renault would not be happy with the decision as they are doing everything they can to keep the energy drink team on board. However, despite Honda’s poor returns since their return to F1 in 2015, they have shown potential with Toro Rosso and can win anything from this partnership. Tired of not being able to compete with Ferrari and Mercedes during the season, Red Bull has likely decided that a team that focused solely on them would be more advantageous and help them fight for the championship.
It would be interesting to see how smoothly Red Bull is switching to Honda after working with Renault for the past 12 years and how Renault would develop as a developer without the input from Red Bull Racing.
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The post Red Bull opts for Honda engines instead of Renault in 2019-2020 first appeared on monter-une-startup.
