F1 News

Honda faces enormous challenge: 'Much appreciated from cooperation with Red Bull'

23 April 2021 at 09:44
Last update 23 April 2021 at 09:50
  • GPblog.com

Honda has done an excellent job with the new engine for AlphaTauri and Red Bull Racing this year. Both teams are very competitive, but bringing forward the engine scheduled for 2022 was no easy task for Honda.

Honda is leaving Formula 1 at the end of 2021, and it hopes to do so with a bang. The engine that was actually planned for 2022 was brought in as early as 2021 at all costs. It turned out to be a success, with pole in Bahrain and Max Verstappen's victory in Imola proving that the RB16B with the Honda engine is extremely competitive.

Honda gives a glimpse

''I believe that we were able to implement everything that we have to in order to compete with Mercedes. We had a lot of cooperation from Red Bull, making sure that we could get the most from this new compact engine. Until the summer we were working on the basis that it was going to be the previous bigger engine,'' said Yasuaki Asaki, head of Honda's engine department, in a Honda press release.

''This is the first time that we’ve gone as far as changing the structure of the PU itself. But I think the biggest challenge that we’ve had up to this point was back in the McLaren days, when we made big changes to the MGU-H, we changed the positioning of the compressor and turbine in relation to the V bank - I think the biggest challenges were back then'', says Asaki. Honda is also providing new images of parts of the engine. A unique thing you rarely see F1 teams do.