Honda to quit F1 at the end of 2021

The Japanese automaker, Honda, made a major announcement of ending its F1 journey after the next year’s season. The announcements were made in a recent press conference at its Tokyo headquarters. Honda was a leading manufacturer of the race engines used in Red Bull and AlphaTauri cars.

Previously, Honda made an impressive return to the F1 circuit with McLaren back in 2015. Its iconic return, however, resulted in frustration over these years because the automaker struggled to enhance the tech behind complicated turbo hybrid engine technology.

In a statement, Honda’s representative said: “Honda needs to funnel its corporate resources in research and development into the areas of the future power unit and energy technologies, including fuel cell vehicle (FCV) and battery EV (BEV) technologies, which will be the core of carbon-free technologies.”

Besides this, the official announcement stated that "We have noticed that it's very tough for all the car manufacturers at the moment, because of the environment change for electrification. So, we are summing up the development cost and having discussions internally."

Before this announcement, the brand terminated its partnership with the woking-based outfit at the end of 2017. Post the contract termination, the automaker shifted to Toro Rosso before cementing its partnership with Red Bull last year.

Talking of Red Bull which recently shifted from Renault to Honda exclaimed that they "understand and respect" the steps which have been taken by the Japanese manufacturer and also explained how this move by Honda won’t affect Red Bull’s commitment to Formula 1. However, the most hard-hit impact of the sudden decision was Bull’s loss of alternative power-unit suppliers in F1.

Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner also said that. "As a team, we understand how difficult it has been for Honda Motor Company to reach the decision to step back from Formula One at the end of the 2021 season." 

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