Red Bull Honda
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-Following the australian Gp, opening round of the 2015 championship, RedBull and Renault were involved in a fracas.
-In Malaysia this situation has improved even if on track the now RedBullRenault cars are still struggling. -Red Bull clarified that without engine supplier the team could be thrown out of F1.
-Honda also clarified that McLaren and Honda are MacHonda.My question is if RedBull are not already tied with Honda?
My point being this
The start of the motogp season revealed for the first time ever RedBull sponsorship on the actual Honda motogp bike. For those that follow this form of motorsport they might have noticed that RedBull has sponsored either or both of the Honda riders, but never the bike, in 20 years past. The bike is littered with redbull stickers
even if redbull also sponsors the austrian KTM bike manufacturer.I am pretty sure that the McLaren deal with Honda is an exclusive one, meaning that Honda cannot supply any other team. Red Bull’s only hope is to drag another engine manufacturer into the equation (I’ve seen Audi and Porsche rumours being thrown about).
RBR being a customer team in F1?
Not a chance I reckon unless they’ve decided to make a new home in the midfield, which seemed to be their home before Vettel came (and may very well be immediately after he left?).
If Red Bull were going to dump Renault as their engine supplier, why would they go for the only engine supplier currently doing worse?
Renault has implied a possible drop out but they’ve also been eyeing either STR or SFI. Honda may not be in tip top shape right now but they’ve set themselves for the long haul besides there’s history backing up my thesis. Honda re-entered F1 in the 80’s with Spirit, proving their worth and moving up the grid to Williams to whom they were loyal, this is until Dennis poached Honda to McLaren.
I’m sure that if Honda is not satisfied with McLaren they’ll join RBR, in the end the exclusivity clause is not indefinite @davids Honda pointed out in late 2014 and has since never mentioned this further. It’s not even like Honda’s base is in Milton Keynes, if anything Honda used McLaren to re-enter F1 with the long term interest of joining RBR, thankfully everything is falling apart with Renault but maybe the McLaren is not half bad and maybe the RBR is not what it was in the past, anyhow plenty of options open at the moment for Honda.
@craig-o As far as I know Honda are allowed to supply other teams in 2016.
Yep. Honda have confirmed that although they do not require a second team for development data, if a team approached them they would consider it. I think McLaren have exclusivity on works team status but Honda can supply other teams.
Question is, would RedBull actually jump? Currently Renault’s biggest team so psuedo works team, main sponsor Infinity. Give this up to be a customer, one rung down the ladder from McLaren? Added to which, the same steep development curve as Renault.
Can’t see that this would be a good strategy.Red Bull also sponsor Audi in DTM? A pertinent question at this point might be: Who do Red Bull not sponsor :P
Also, if Red Bull went it alone until a sell out to Audi (once Bernie is gone), what name would they revive for their new engine? One of the many Audi brands in preparation? I can’t see it being called Red Bull Ilmor.. maybe the Austrian engine builder? Or just “Red Bull Racing” and be done with it?
Red Bull KTM, now that would be real news. As far as I’m concerned neither Audi or Porsche even have the slightest plan to enter F1 especially now they are both committed to WEC. Lamborghini has more chance of reentering and we all know how successful that was…
Honda should have contacted Red Bull instead of trying to emulate past glory with McLaren.
To those saying Honda is worse than Renault, don’t forget Renault should be miles ahead and they aren’t. If anything I believe Renault will go backwards whilst Honda can only go better. And what if STR is bought by Renault, are they suddenly going to built a Mercedes beating engine? Imagine if they do, that makes Red Bull a customer team in fact so why not make the switch to anything else. Or perhaps recommit to another engine that is not on the grid right now. If I was of any meaning in Red Bull I would have started lobbying with Honda as soon as 2014 pre-season testing ended.
I agree with PorscheF1, although I should highlight that all of your hypothesis live under the same roof, even Porsche. Iestyn Red Bull has a long term sponsorship of the audi DTM of some drivers but the same happened last year with one BMW, Da Costa’s, RBR have ruled out making their own engines, anything can change though, Ilmor is tagging along with Renault so who knows what twists lay ahead, I wouldn’t bet on KTM, there a tech chasm ahead them.
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