Honda Hopes for One Last Hurrah In F1 Via Red Bull & Alpha Tauri
An upgraded power unit could propel Red Bull right to the front, and help Alpha Tauri become a ‘mid pack winner’ in the 2021 Formula 1 season.
Honda’s most recent foray into Formula 1 was marred by poor performance and unusually low reliability. It was on its most prominent display when McLaren had a staggering 35 retirements in the three years they ran Honda engines from 2015-2017. And of those, 6 times it was a double retirement with both cars out of the race. Understandably, they were eager to get out of the deal.
Despite this, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing picked up the Honda power units for their main team and for Alpha Tauri. This F1 powerhouse proved Honda power could be successful. The highlight of this was the underdog success from Pierre Gasly. He managed an outright win in Italy during the 2020 season… In arguably a back of the pack team. So, Honda has a shot at redeeming themselves one last time.
Speaking of Alpha Tauri, they just had their debut of the AT02, and it’s quite a looker. But more importantly, they are excited about the engine. A report from Racer indicates Toyoharu Tanabe has a lot of hope for the coming season going forward. As Honda’s F1 Technical Director, Tanabe stated, “we feel we have prepared well for the coming season in conjunction with Scuderia Alpha Tauri over the winter so far. We won’t know for sure how good a job we have done until we hit the track, but so far preparation has gone smoothly.” Changes include modifications to the engine itself, the turbines of the turbocharger unit, and the energy recovery system.
Honda seemed to surprise itself with the news of these updates, however. After 2020’s setbacks with Covid, Formula 1 had planned on rolling out the newest set of regulations one year later than scheduled. Plans for the 2021 season saw a push back to 2022. Honda originally was going to follow this timeline with their power unit upgrades. But Honda made a surprise announcement that 2021 would be its last year in F1. This forced Tanabe to push the release one year earlier, in order to have Honda’s exit from F1 end on a successful note.
Gasly scored a win last year and is joined by Yuki Tsunoda, who wishes to become the first Japanese driver to win a Grand Prix.
Photos: Scuderia Alpha Tauri
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