Why Red Bull's Honda takeover is a gamechanger for its F1 mindset

Red Bull's takeover of Honda's Formula 1 engine project has solved a potential short-term headache Honda's withdrawal at the end of 2021 would have caused. But, in taking destiny into its own hands, it could have a positive long-term impact too.

Jonathan Noble Feb 17, 2021, 9:40 AM

Red Bull as a company likes to do things its own way. Being a sponsor and just a player in someone else's business is not something that it sits comfortably with. It's why it has two Formula 1 teams, several football clubs, runs its own events, has its own media house and own a television channel. Oh, and its own record label too.

So, it is not hard to understand how frustrating F1's turbo-hybrid era must have been for the energy drinks giant. During the V8 spell, where engine performance was pretty much equal across all manufacturers, Red Bull had triumphed at a time when aero was king. And its hold over F1 had been helped at times by some blown exhaust assistance from engine partner Renault.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.