[F1 Topic]Honda: I'm going to "come back" again!

Since Honda overturned its official decision to withdraw from F1 at the end of 2021 last year and registered with the FIA ​​as a power supplier in 2026, the industry has been speculating which team it will cooperate with at that time—especially Red Bull has announced that it will switch to Ford—now the answer is revealed: It's Aston Martin, which is closely related to Mercedes!

When the pneumonia epidemic in Wuhan, China raged in 2020 and caused a serious blow to F1 and even the world's industry, Honda's then president Takahiro Hachigo announced that he would officially withdraw from F1 at the end of 2021 and switch to a non-factory support role for Red Bull / Alpha Tauri. However, after Toshihiro Sanbe, president of Zhongxin, took office in 2021, the policy took a turn and reconsidered the possibility of officially returning to F1.

Although Honda will no longer be officially named from 2022, the cooperation with the Red Bull teams is still the same as the factory team, but Honda has closed its racing headquarters in the UK, and many technicians have also transferred to RBPT (Red Bull Power Company), After re-deciding to officially return to F1, both the hardware and the team need to be rebuilt.

The predecessor of the Aston Martin team, Force India, and the predecessor of Racing Point, have a close relationship with Mercedes: the engine, gearbox and corresponding rear suspension all come from Mercedes—not to mention that the power of Aston Martin’s commercial vehicles also comes from Mercedes— However, since Lawrence Stroll acquired Aston Martin, it has invested in the construction of new factory buildings and wind tunnel facilities, with the goal of becoming an upstream team and even a championship team.

Since Aston Martin copied the design of the Red Bull racing car last year, it can be seen that their technical cooperation with Mercedes seems to have deteriorated, and the move of poaching engineers from Mercedes has also dissatisfied the latter's team leader Toto Wolff, and even surpassed Mercedes' own factory performance this year. Therefore, Stroll has a new idea: If you want to compete for the championship, you can’t rely on competing teams—even your own engine supplier—they need an independent car factory without a team. Of course, Honda is the best choice at present. .

But from Honda's point of view, if it wants to return officially, wouldn't it be the best solution to continue to cooperate with the current thriving Red Bull? In this regard, Red Bull also has its own calculations: once experienced post-traumatic disease with almost no power available, what Red Bull is most afraid of is the ever-changing partner, which will make future planning at a loss, and the uncertainty of Honda’s coming and going has made Red Bull lose confidence. , so in a certain aspect, the team took the initiative to decide not to hold the pipa.

In 2026, the new power specification of F1 cancels the unreliable and low-efficiency MGU-H thermal energy conversion element, the electric energy ratio of the hybrid power will reach 50%, the synergy output horsepower will reach 1,000 horsepower, and 100% use of sustainable Fuel makes Honda believe that F1 will still be a platform for them to demonstrate advanced environmental protection technologies; but if Honda attaches so much importance to electric energy, why doesn't it participate in FE (Electric Formula)? Because the electric system of FE is produced by a unified manufacturer, not developed by the participating car manufacturers, and the market popularity is much lower than that of F1!

At the beginning of the cooperation between Honda and Red Bull, because the title sponsor of the team, Aston Martin, was still there (there was no self-organized team at the time), the name of Honda, which is also a car factory, could not be listed in the team's full title. The two depots that Bull terminated their cooperation have actually combined. It can be seen that the F1 circle is really small, and there is no permanent friend-enemy relationship.

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