Red Bull Racing and Honda have formed an incredible partnership that has once again seen Max Verstappen head straight to the top of the Drivers’ Championship in 2024.
Honda first made their Formula 1 debut back in 1964 as a manufacturer but hasn’t raced as a standalone team since 2008.
Instead, they’ve partnered with the likes of Williams and McLaren throughout their history, but President Koji Watanabe has spoken to Autosport about why they’re now working so well with Red Bull and what’s changed for 2024.
Honda president shares power unit changes to cope with ‘unbelievable’ 2024 Red Bull
After winning 21 out of 22 races in 2023, chief designer Adrian Newey set about creating his latest masterpiece for this season.
While reports suggest it might be his final season with the team, he took some unusual steps to improve the car, but they’ve worked a treat.
Newey had some concerns about the car during pre-season testing, but they were completely unfounded as they secured a one-two finish in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Red Bull have only failed to win a single race this year and that’s when Max Verstappen suffered a technical fault and Sergio Perez couldn’t close the gap to both Ferraris and McLarens.
However, Red Bull have been able to rely on a very reliable Honda power unit in 2024, five years after their partnership began.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links
Although they weren’t on the same level as Mercedes for the first few seasons, they not only closed the gap but overtaken them during that time.
While they formally withdrew as Red Bull’s power unit provider after the 2021 season, they’ve still been working closely alongside Red Bull Powertrains for the past three campaigns.
Koji Watanabe explains the key change made by Honda for this season
Speaking about Honda’s reaction to the 2024 Red Bull car, Watanabe said: “For this year’s Red Bull car, we were very surprised to see that they changed so much for the RB20.
“Last year we won 21 out of the 22 races together, but they still changed the concept. It is unbelievable!
“They made a lot of requests to adapt our engine to the new concept for the RB20. After we saw the RB20 in real life we were so surprised by all the changes that they made.
“Of course, we cannot increase the power [under the engine freeze], but we can adapt the engine to the new machine.
“Apart from that, we can also improve the reliability of the engine. That is what we have done over the past winter.
“This has given Red Bull more freedom for their design and for their aerodynamic concept. That is why they could change the position of the oil coolers, radiators, etcetera.
“Sometimes last year we had a risk to damage the power unit that did not become big trouble in the end, but we always need to minimise the risk.
“That is why we have made our best effort to improve the reliability of the engine even further for this year.”
Red Bull Powertrains going solo from 2026
It’s fascinating to hear that Honda were just as surprised by Red Bull’s 2024 car as the rest of the paddock.
No one expected the car to look so different and Honda improving the reliability has certainly helped at this early stage of the season.
In 2026, however, Honda would have completely withdrawn from the team and Red Bull Powertrains will be solely reliable for the car’s new power unit in a year when major regulation changes are coming.
TheF1 paddock have heard various rumblings about how that project is going and it might have a big impact on whether Verstappen sees out his contract until the end of 2028.
If he decides to move on with Mercedes circling, that could be a crucial deciding factor for the three-time world champion.
Honda aren’t leaving Formula 1 just yet and will be Aston Martin’s power unit provider from 2026 onwards.
They know they’ll be working with Fernando Alonso again after their disastrous relationship at McLaren, but the Spaniard appears to be very encouraged about the partnership after watching years of Red Bull dominance further down the paddock.
The post ‘What we have done’: Honda president shares the one engine change made to help continue Red Bull’s dominance appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
