Red Bull were Happy to Allow ‘Willing Partner’ Honda to Focus on Performance Gains – Horner

Christian Horner has revealed that Red Bull Racing were willing to do anything they could to ensure their partnership with Honda worked, and they have been rewarded with two Drivers’ Championships for Max Verstappen and one Constructors’ Championship win.

Honda first joined forces with Scuderia Toro Rosso (now Scuderia AlphaTauri) in 2018 after they cut short their alliance with the McLaren F1 Team, with Red Bull jumping on board in 2019 after they themselves ended their own partnership with Renault.

Red Bull were able to get more out of the power units and brought themselves into championship contention in 2021, with Verstappen edging out Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s Lewis Hamilton in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, albeit in contentious circumstances.

Honda withdrew from Formula 1 at the end of the season but allowed Red Bull to take over ownership of its power units, with the Japanese marque still responsible for the maintenance and updates for the engine. 

It was much more clear cut in 2022 with Verstappen winning fifteen of the twenty two races on his way to his second title, but Horner says it was important during the early days of the Red Bull Honda partnership that they would allow them to do anything they wanted to ensure performance came.

“I think the team felt that after the years of difficulties we’d been through, we suddenly had a very willing partner that was prepared to do whatever they could to extract the most performance they could – and everything was focused on performance,” said Horner to RacingNews365.com.

“We could see that commitment, that desire and the fact that it meant so much to every member of the Honda team.

“Honda is very much passion drive company within the racing department and you could see that through Sakura and their design and operational team.”