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Red Bull have made their own transmissions since the V8 era, Team Silverstone used to make their own but have bought them in since 2009 when they starting buying-in from McLaren, then later Mercedes. Nobody using Honda PUs otherwise, so they have to make 'em themselves now.
I think considering the mess they are in with limited time to fix it before the homologation of the drivetrain next week, Aston Martin will have a very difficult time recovering. I expect them to qualify 10th or 11th in the first 4 races and treat them like extended test sessions to get on top of all of the issues that they have. Cadillac looks like they might be a touch slower in overall pace, but that remains to be seen for sure until Q1 in Australia.
energy/ harvesting by race 7 if possible for Aston Martin to have any chance of finishing the season above 10th in the constructors title. 
Love your username. I think similar with a few crazy PU failures/DNF mixed in. Same for 2027 - unless AM hire some people who know what they are doing - a la RBPT.V10FURY wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 19:23I think considering the mess they are in with limited time to fix it before the homologation of the drivetrain next week, Aston Martin will have a very difficult time recovering. I expect them to qualify 10th or 11th in the first 4 races and treat them like extended test sessions to get on top of all of the issues that they have. Cadillac looks like they might be a touch slower in overall pace, but that remains to be seen for sure until Q1 in Australia.
If they get the Adou allowances to upgrade the engine/ drivetrain by race 7 as has been reported then they might move up to 8-9th place by the end of the year. This off season has been so diabolical it is almost impossible to overcome what little running they have done in the off season to prepare to race this 2026 car.
The small good news for Aston Martin is the Suzuka race is early in the season. If they fail spectacularly in Hondas home race, with the entire country watching, this will be very beneficial for Aston Martin to get Honda to react in the strongest terms. Having worked with Japanese companies myself, and visited Japan on many occasions to work with the wonderful people there, it is sometimes like watching paint dry to get something accomplished. 5 meetings to agree on something that should have been a five minute discussion at most. Different ways of working for sure than many folks expect.
Adrian Newey alone cannot fix this disaster. Honda needs to at least match the Audi drivetrain in power, reliability, as well as batteryenergy/ harvesting by race 7 if possible for Aston Martin to have any chance of finishing the season above 10th in the constructors title.
Constructors Championship:
No engine upgrade : 10th this year
Engine upgrade: 8th this year
I hope I am very wrong as I want to see Alonso get at least a podium this year. Williams , Audi,and Cadillac are the current teams that looked the weakest in preseason testing. However I wouldn’t be surprised if Audi ends up a lot stronger by mid year and shortens the distance to Racing Bulls and Haas. 8th place
this year will not be easy, even with a better Honda package.
13000 in 6th gear is - insane.
<>… redbull powertrain program didnt exist to develop the Hondapowerunit.honda announced that 2021 will be there last year in f1 so they deployed a powerunit that was earmarked for 2022 in 2021 their last major upgrades and won the championship. Redbull started their own program because Honda was leaving f1 not help them. By the time redbull has there own team and buildings max was already a two time championship and pu were long frozen.McG wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 01:35Classic case of not bothering to read up on who was responsible for the quick improvement of "Honda". Red Bull’s improvement followed the hiring of Mercedes power unit engineer Ben Hodgkinson to lead Red Bull Powertrains, which fundamentally changed how the so called Honda engine was developed, integrated, and operated. While the core architecture remained Honda’s on paper, Red Bull gained championship winning mechanical expertise in reliability optimisation, packaging, and extracting performance from the power unit in ways Honda had not achieved before in that chassis. In F1 operational control and engineering execution define real world performance, so although the design originated with Honda, the engine’s behaviour and results were shaped largely by Red Bull’s own power unit program. I'll never fully understand why people don't just fact check before posting.edu2703 wrote: ↑22 Feb 2026, 20:17A classic case of recency bias.max_speed wrote: ↑22 Feb 2026, 10:34Is it possible for FIA to disqualify honda for being such a bad manufacturer and force enginer supplier to provide engine to aston ?. I dnt think aston being lapped by new enntrants does F1 brand any good and they might become safety risk. Donkey racing in race of horses. I fully blame aston for this debacle. They did not learn from mclaren at all. Honda is good enough for 100cc bike and biat engines, they dnt deserve to be in F1. We dnt need GP3 manufacturers here.
Honda engines have won 2 constructors' championships with Red Bull, with dozens of victories in the current turbo era, not to mention other titles and dozens more wins for cars with their engines in other eras of Formula 1.
Honda is among the top 10 vehicle manufacturers in the world and is present in several motorsport categories, both 2 and 4 wheels. There is absolutely no doubt about Honda's competence in motorsport. There is no universe in which they can be considered a "bad manufacturer".
Criticisms of Honda at the moment are valid, but to lower the level to the point of belittling the entire company is extremely ignorant and will contribute absolutely nothing to the debate. Honda has a rich history in F1 and the Formula 1 Group is pleased to have a global manufacturer producing engines for the category.
Regarding your "safety concerns," the FIA doesn't disqualify engines for being too bad because it understands this is simply an engineering risk; a manufacturer can naturally have problems, and that's part of the game.
The 107% rule already exists to deal with cars that are too slow and could pose a risk to other drivers in a race. There's no need to go so far as to ban the engine.
Bill, be nice .....Bill wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 20:12You are an idiot redbull powertrain program didnt exist to develop the Hondapowerunit.honda announced that 2021 will be there last year in f1 so they deployed a powerunit that was earmarked for 2022 in 2021 their last major upgrades and won the championship. Redbull started their own program because Honda was leaving f1 not help them. By the time redbull has there own team and buildings max was already a two time championship and pu were long frozen.McG wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 01:35Classic case of not bothering to read up on who was responsible for the quick improvement of "Honda". Red Bull’s improvement followed the hiring of Mercedes power unit engineer Ben Hodgkinson to lead Red Bull Powertrains, which fundamentally changed how the so called Honda engine was developed, integrated, and operated. While the core architecture remained Honda’s on paper, Red Bull gained championship winning mechanical expertise in reliability optimisation, packaging, and extracting performance from the power unit in ways Honda had not achieved before in that chassis. In F1 operational control and engineering execution define real world performance, so although the design originated with Honda, the engine’s behaviour and results were shaped largely by Red Bull’s own power unit program. I'll never fully understand why people don't just fact check before posting.edu2703 wrote: ↑22 Feb 2026, 20:17
A classic case of recency bias.
Honda engines have won 2 constructors' championships with Red Bull, with dozens of victories in the current turbo era, not to mention other titles and dozens more wins for cars with their engines in other eras of Formula 1.
Honda is among the top 10 vehicle manufacturers in the world and is present in several motorsport categories, both 2 and 4 wheels. There is absolutely no doubt about Honda's competence in motorsport. There is no universe in which they can be considered a "bad manufacturer".
Criticisms of Honda at the moment are valid, but to lower the level to the point of belittling the entire company is extremely ignorant and will contribute absolutely nothing to the debate. Honda has a rich history in F1 and the Formula 1 Group is pleased to have a global manufacturer producing engines for the category.
Regarding your "safety concerns," the FIA doesn't disqualify engines for being too bad because it understands this is simply an engineering risk; a manufacturer can naturally have problems, and that's part of the game.
The 107% rule already exists to deal with cars that are too slow and could pose a risk to other drivers in a race. There's no need to go so far as to ban the engine.
Is there an option to suppress posts by people with negative votes?
You are correct about the lack of such contribution edu2703, thanks to you and others for calling out such slop when it gets posted here.edu2703 wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 02:45I'm unaware of any "extremely significant" contribution from Red Bull to Honda PU that was a "game changer" to the point of crediting almost all of the PU's success to Red Bull, as the OP claims.Leon Kennedy wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 02:28
I understood what he meant and he is right in saying that the last 3 championships won by Verstappen are not only thanks to Honda. Let's be clear: from 2021 to 2022 the Power unit was developed by Redbull powertrain together with Honda, so from 2022 onwards it was a modified Honda engine. At Sakura they knew the modifications and so they simply helped in the logistics and production part, they have the intellectual property of that engine (in fact it bore the Honda name), but the development it wasn't done only in Sakura.
Honda's withdrawal announcement was made on October 2, 2020.
Basically from 2018 to 2020 pure Honda engine, from the beginning of the 2021 to 2025 Honda modified by Redbull Powertrain.
But one thing is certain: Honda PU was already showing competitiveness, realiability and good performance before Red Bull became directly involved in its development.
Well put, at least the baseless & biased drivel they keep posting is good for an occasional laugh.