"Initially we were going to have a licencing deal with Honda to build their engines under licence," Horner explained.
"The more you dug into it, their IP, trying to work with Japanese suppliers, it would have been impossible.
"So in the end, thankfully – due to the good relationship we have with Honda – we contracted their services to the end of 2025, whilst focusing on the new set-up for 2026.
Proposed to the FIA?
Yes. Now you know why Newey wanted pullrod rear suspension in 2009.
Is that because they hiked the back of the car up so much, that they were paying a center of gravity penalty? Is the thinking that they tried to "compensate" by putting the bulky suspension bits down at the bottom?
That's my best guess. There are other reasons to be made for it but I'd say that was the primary one.
We'll see what kind of one lap pace they can pull out of the car since starting position there is king.
Bill wrote: ↑17 May 2023, 15:03claimed longest deployment is based on data not opinion .the performance difference in f1 is measured in tenth of second so you cant expert dramatic difference from engines alone.if rebull was competiting againt cars with equal level of perfomance then having a honda pu will be an advantage eg in 2021 in a champ fight with merc the hondas lost about 7hp over a course of six to seven races ,merc lost about 50hp which forced them to use more pu. these is knowhow gained over many years in motorsport.saviour stivala wrote: ↑16 May 2023, 16:09The power unit in the RB19 is being flattered by the RB19 chassis and it's aero. Compare the same power unit with its claimed longest deployment of them all when used in the RB19 sister team car.
the idea that the rb19 chassis flatters the honda pu is silly because the shape ,dimension and characteristic of pu dictates what chassis redbull built.if they were using a different pu then they will bulid a different car and no quarantee it will be competitive.the honda is small and compact which help with channelling air to back of car which help in generating downforce.they also found novel ways to harvest with mguh without compromising combution efficiency.the result of all that is they dont lean too much on mguk harvesting therefore help with laptimes.alpha tauri is a small team with a budget to match ,but they maybe backmarkers but in the race they fight for points which show a pu working well
This is a point that is worrying regarding the new RB-Ford PU collaboration.
Even if RB have reliability issues for a few years beginning in 2026, over the long term developing their own engine manufacturing facilities, connections, expertise is the right move if they want to be a championship contending team consistently over the decades.AR3-GP wrote: ↑17 May 2023, 16:50Bill wrote: ↑17 May 2023, 15:03claimed longest deployment is based on data not opinion .the performance difference in f1 is measured in tenth of second so you cant expert dramatic difference from engines alone.if rebull was competiting againt cars with equal level of perfomance then having a honda pu will be an advantage eg in 2021 in a champ fight with merc the hondas lost about 7hp over a course of six to seven races ,merc lost about 50hp which forced them to use more pu. these is knowhow gained over many years in motorsport.saviour stivala wrote: ↑16 May 2023, 16:09The power unit in the RB19 is being flattered by the RB19 chassis and it's aero. Compare the same power unit with its claimed longest deployment of them all when used in the RB19 sister team car.
the idea that the rb19 chassis flatters the honda pu is silly because the shape ,dimension and characteristic of pu dictates what chassis redbull built.if they were using a different pu then they will bulid a different car and no quarantee it will be competitive.the honda is small and compact which help with channelling air to back of car which help in generating downforce.they also found novel ways to harvest with mguh without compromising combution efficiency.the result of all that is they dont lean too much on mguk harvesting therefore help with laptimes.alpha tauri is a small team with a budget to match ,but they maybe backmarkers but in the race they fight for points which show a pu working wellThis is a point that is worrying regarding the new RB-Ford PU collaboration.
Honda developed a cylinder coating technology that is unrivaled currently. As a result, their ICE power doesn't degrade appreciably over time. Merc was losing 3-4 tenths of performance over 7 race weekends. Honda was losing a tenth at most.
Maybe I will be proven wrong about this, but it seems like RB should stick to what they do best, and Honda stick to what they do best. I struggle to imagine that Rb won't have reliability issues in 2026.