Honda Says Its New Engine for Red Bull Can Challenge Mercedes in Formula One

Honda Says Its New Engine for Red Bull Can Challenge Mercedes in Formula One

Red Bull is using Honda engine (Photo Credit: AP)

Honda head of power unit development Yasuaki Asaki is confident that the company’s new engine can compete with Mercedes in the Formula One.

• News18 Sports
• Last Updated: March 26, 2021, 23:41 IST
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Honda head of power unit development Yasuaki Asaki is confident that the company’s new engine can compete with Mercedes in the Formula One. He said they had to design an all-new power unit to compete with Mercedes. He added that the company’s decision to exit F1 at the end of the 2021 season accelerated their development work and they put in everything in the 2021 engine.

“I gave the instruction (six months ago) for us to start work on the new structure PU. I think the biggest concern on the Red Bull side was whether we’d be able to get it done in time, but we explained that with the previous PU we would not be able to beat Mercedes and that we would need the new PU in order to do that. In order to win, we needed to implement the new PU, and hence we started work on it,» Asaki explained.

“There were some of our engineers who came to me directly and said we will not be able to do the development required in the time that we have. However, once everyone was informed of the news from President Hachigo that we would be leaving Formula 1, I think they understood the reason why I came to them and asked for us to get this new PU ready in that time,» he said.

“So what I did was say to everyone that given that this is our last year it’d be nice for us to be able to demonstrate what it is we’ve achieved as Honda engineers. And with that everyone’s expression changed instantly really, and everyone kind of got to work on doing what needed to be done,» he added.

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Asaki said the fact that his company changed the structure of the PU in only six months is an “almost miraculous technological achievement».

“Changing the structure of the PU with only six months until testing and round one is an incredibly challenging thing to do. But thanks to the hard work that everyone put in together, we were able to get the development work done, we ran well in testing, and were able to get ready for round one. So if everything goes well, we think that this will be able to contribute to the capabilities of Red Bull,» Asaki explains.

Asaki revealed Honda was getting close to Mercedes in 2019 but then they accelerated their development.

“We only have one year left so we have to be able to gain improvements from this straight away. Our objective is to beat Mercedes,» he said. “Last year just as we thought we were getting closer to them, they showed further improvement. So looking back on what we’ve learned so far, we’ve set even higher goals for ourselves and if their improvements are within what we’ve assumed them to be, then I believe we have the capability to compete with them,» he added.

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Red Bull F1 Engine Program Lures Former Engineering Boss from Mercedes

Red Bull will soon join Ferrari as only F1 teams to build engines in-house and on site.

• Ben Hodgkinson comes to Red Bull from Mercedes, where he has been head of engineering for Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains for the past two decades.
• Red Bull’s engine program is the biggest investment made by the Austrian drinks firm since it set up the F1 team in 2005.
• Red Bull will absorb all of the staff and equipment from Honda’s Milton Keynes operations, and this will be housed in a facility at the Red Bull campus.

Red Bull’s new Red Bull Powertrains Division has appointed Ben Hodgkinson as technical director. The British engineer was previously head of engineering at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP), which builds the Mercedes F1 engines.

Hodgkinson’s primary focus will be on developing Red Bull’s first non-Honda power unit, which is planned for 2025.

Hodgkinson has been at Mercedes for more than 20 years, dating back to when it teamed with Ilmor Engineering. A graduate of University College in London, he initially worked with the rally tuning firm Mountune, working on Ford’s World Rally Championship engines before moving on to Advanced Engine Research, where he was part of the team that created a turbocharged engine used by MG in the Le Mans 24 Hours. He then moved on to Ilmor, where he designed parts for the Honda Indy Racing League engine before switching to the Formula 1 program, where he worked on the design and development of the internal combustion engine for the current F1 engines.

“It was not easy to make the decision to leave HPP after almost 20 years, but the opportunity to take on such a far-reaching and important project is a great honor,” he said. “Red Bull is a serious player in Formula 1 and have been our biggest rival in the hybrid era, so I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together in this new phase of the company’s journey.”

Red Bull Powertrains is delighted to confirm the appointment of Ben Hodgkinson as Technical Director

— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) April 23, 2021

Red Bull’s engine program is the biggest investment made by the Austrian drinks firm since it set up the F1 team in 2005. The decision to become an engine manufacturer was made after Honda decided to quit F1 at the end of 2021 and Red Bull found itself without an engine partner. Although it could have forced an existing engine manufacturer to provide engines, this would have been counterproductive because Red Bull’s goal is to win and its weakness has long been that it was at the mercy of its engine suppliers.

The details of the Honda deal are secret, but sources told Autoweek that it gives Red Bull not only independence from having to be a partner or customer, but also more political power within the sport, particularly if there are customer teams beyond AlphaTauri, which might be the case in the future.

However, in the interim the intellectual property acquired from Honda cannot be used in any other way, such as offsetting the costs by selling the knowledge to manufacturers to allow them to build their own eponymous engines. This could be something that McLaren, Aston Martin, and Alfa Romeo might have been interested in.

Red Bull will absorb all of the staff and equipment from the Japanese company’s Milton Keynes operations, and this will be housed in a facility in the Red Bull campus. This means that apart from Ferrari, Red Bull will become the only team in Formula 1 to have everything integrated at the same site.

It is a major undertaking, but it will mean that in the future Red Bull will have a turnkey asset, which could be sold off to any company wanting to be involved in the sport and in the automotive business, if at some point Red Bull wants to exit Grand Prix racing.

By the time the new F1 rules arrive in 2025, Red Bull will be in a position to design, manufacture, and build its own engines, independent of Honda, at which point it may then be in a position to provide engines to other teams—indeed, it could be required to do so. It might also want to sell its intellectual property to an OEM.

The word is that Red Bull will be doing the job properly, as one would expect, and that its new engine division will have as many as six dynos in the facility, which is currently under construction at the heart of the Red Bull Technology Campus in Milton Keynes, England.

«Ben’s appointment signals our long-term intent.»

“We are delighted to welcome Ben to Red Bull Powertrains as technical director,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. “He comes to this hugely exciting project as a proven race winner and as an innovator capable of leading a like-minded team of highly skilled engineers.

“When Red Bull announced the creation of Red Bull Powertrains it was also announcing a new phase of the company’s ambition in Formula 1, to bring every aspect of car design in-house and to put our destiny in our own hands. The ultimate expression of that is the development of a Red Bull power unit to meet the next generation of Formula 1 engine regulations. Ben’s appointment signals our long-term intent, and we will support him and his team with every available resource required in order to succeed.”