Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Auto
  3. News

Honda to finish 2025 F1 season with Red Bull before 2026 switch to Aston Martin

Honda celebrates the 60th anniversary of its first F1 Grand Prix victory

By
Max Verstappen wins his first F1 World Drivers' Championship in 2021.
Courtesy of Honda Motor Company

After the 2025 F1 season, Honda Motor Company’s Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) will cease supplying and supporting engines for Red Bull’s two Formula 1 teams, Red Bull Racing and the Racing Bulls. In 2026, Honda will begin a works partnership with Aston Martin to supply power units that comply with the new FIA F1 Technical regulations that start that year.

Honda’s first F1 victory at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix.
Honda’s first F1 victory at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. Courtesy of Honda Motor Cpompany

Honda has a 61-year history with F1 racing, sometimes as a constructor (a team that supplies its own engines) and other times as a works supplier (providing engines for other teams). In late 1965, Honda fielded its first F1 team and surprised the racing world by winning the 1965 Mexico City Grand Prix.

Recommended Videos

Why Honda will no longer support Red Bull powertrains

Max Verstappen wins his first F1 World Drivers' Championship in 2021.
Courtesy of Honda Motor Company

Honda began supplying power units (the term for hybrid engines) to Scuderia Toro Rosso (the Red Bull junior team now called Racing Bulls) in 2018 and to Red Bull Racing in 2019. Max Verstappen won his four Drivers’ World Championships driving cars with Honda-sourced or supported power units.

Honda and Red Bull have had a good run. Following the 2021 season, Red Bull started supplying its own power units, referred to as RBPT.  The Red Bull power trains are based on Honda’s developments, and Honda’s role has been to support reliability. That working arrangement ends in 2026  when the new power unit regulations and many other changes take effect.

Honda starts a new partnership with Aston Martin

Honda Racing Corporation UK located in Milton-Keynes, England.
Honda’s racing group, HRC, initially based in Sakura, Japan, is heavily involved in analyzing race car data to maximize performance. As the cars and their software systems have advanced, with 20,000 parameters tracked, teams adjust settings even during races.

Honda opened HRC US in 2023 and established HRC UK in Milton Keynes, England, in 2024. The Milton Keynes facility will be the base for the partnership with Aston Martin starting in 2026.

The 2026 F1 regulation changes to the cars, powertrains, and myriad other factors are complex. Several factors of significant importance to HRC are a new requirement for sustainable, 100% carbon-neutral fuel, a smaller maximum fuel load, and the elimination of the thermal energy regeneration unit. In addition, the power unit’s combustion engine and electric motor are also required to supply power approximately equally, a change from 80% combustion to 20% electric motor.

Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown
Former Contributing Editor
Bruce Brown Contributing Editor   As a Contributing Editor to the Auto teams at Digital Trends and TheManual.com, Bruce… Read Full Bio
Topics
Auto
Porsche wants to teach you how actually to drive their cars
Porsche

A Porsche is one of the most recognizable cars on the road. You always know when you are looking at one. So, it stands to reason that people love them, right? Of course they do. But loving a car and knowing how to drive one are very different. What is it that Ja Rule said in The Fast and the Furious? “We know a few things. And one of the things we knows is, it isn’t how you stand by your car, it is how to drive your car. You better learn that.” How do you learn to drive a Porsche? At the Porsche Track Experience, which has offered programs on everything from a single-day basics class up to a three-day advanced course.

Now, the team behind PTX is expanding into new offerings for the car.

Read more
Auto
The next evolution of the sports car: Porsche redesigns an icon
City, Car, Transportation

Authenticity. It is what we are looking for nowadays as consumers. Thirty years ago, we looked for brand names. We strived for status and letting all those around us see that what we wore, where we lived, where we dined, and finally, what we drove, symbolized our success in life. Then all of that started to stumble, and every industry felt the recession. Of course, the recession was temporary, but the effects of it were not. What we started to look for after that was something real. We realized that stuff…was just stuff. Now, when I look at cars, or suits, or restaurants, I ask myself: What is this going to make me feel?

That is what the new Porsche Mission S does; it makes me feel like vintage New York and the upstate escape.

Read more
Auto
How much horsepower does a 2026 Formula 1 car really have?
Red Bull's Max Verstappen driving a victory circle.

 

If you have ever been to a Formula 1 race, you probably know these machines are the pinnacle of performance. These super machines are some of the most amazing creations in the mechanical world and are a marvel to watch scream around the courses around the world during the F1 season. But how much power do they have? More specifically, how much horsepower pulls that thing around the track?

Read more