Red Bull and Honda are in a state of information war

Red Bull Racing and Honda have achieved impressive success over the years: thanks to the efficient power units that the Japanese group develops and produces, the team has achieved 31 victories (plus one more for AlphaTauri). There are fifteen of these this year alone, and there is no doubt that their number will only increase.

But in 2026, the paths of the two organizations will diverge – Red Bull already has its own engine building department and in the future they bet on cooperation with Ford, while Honda will become the official partner of Aston Martin and supply engines to this team.

But signs of a cooling in their relationship are already noticeable; in particular, we can say that there is a kind of information war going on between them.

“Red Bull doesn’t tell us anything about their future engine, and we don’t tell them anything about our developments,” Koiji Watanabe, president of Honda Racing Corporation, told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. – That’s why there’s already a kind of information war going on. Red Bull knows something about our engine, but ultimately we are responsible for its modernization and the entire operation process.

That’s why we basically have all the information. I hope the Red Bull team continues to win everything until 2025. But from 2026 we will become their main rival – let’s hope so.

Developing a completely new engine is a huge challenge, but our goal is to continue winning championships in the future.”

As Watanabe emphasized, Honda continues to refine its power plants even despite a moratorium on their modernization: “In terms of power and efficiency, we cannot improve anything, but in other areas we can make significant progress even with this engine. .

For example, Ferrari has significantly improved its engine and Mercedes mechanics are working on improving the ERS system. We will also improve our power plant, first of all this concerns resources. So there are still some developments in our plans.”