Honda given major F1 backing ahead of looming Red Bull departure

Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer believes Honda "will absolutely end up" with the best power unit for F1's 2026 overhaul.

F1 power units are set to receive their biggest shake-up since the turbo hybrids were introduced in 2014 from next season, with the MGU-H being scrapped and the electrical systems beefed up, with 100% synthetic fuels also being used for the first time.

Honda was a year late to F1's turbo hybrid era, joining in 2015 with McLaren, although the partnership was doomed for a variety of reasons, with Honda then forming an alliance with Toro Rosso in 2018, with a view to joining Red Bull for '19, if it proved successful. 

Together Honda and Red Bull helped deliver Max Verstappen the 2021 title before the Japanese manufacturer decided to withdraw, instead focusing on other projects, although it quietly re-joined with Red Bull in 2022.

Once the new rules were officially confirmed for 2026, Honda signalled its intention to return once again as a works engine supplier - signing a deal to join Aston Martin. 

And Szafnauer, who worked for Honda management in the early 2000s before joining what was then Force India, believes it will come good again - eventually.

"Honda wants to continue to achieve in Formula 1, they’ve achieved great success with Red Bull, and in the time that I’ve worked with them, it has been the quickest to develop themselves out of a hole," he told PlanetF1.

"In 2000, when I first started working with them when I was at British American Racing, they didn’t have the lightest or most powerful power train in Formula 1. They were a bit lacking when they first came back.

"By 2004, they had the highest output and lowest weight. So it took them four years to go from not so competitive to the best.

"If I look back at what they did with these regulations when they came in with McLaren [in 2015], they didn’t start off with the best powertrain and ended up with the best powertrain.

“They will absolutely end up with the best powertrain. They work hard. They have the resources to do it, they have the infrastructure to do it.

“They have smart powertrain engineers. And one thing Honda has always prided itself on is being a powertrain company, a powertrain-led company.

“Every CEO at Honda Motor Company has been an engine engineer. They’ve had no other CEOs other than engine engineers."