Waiting for 2026, Helmut Marko admits that no resolution has been taken on Pink Bull’s engine provide, as Honda ponders remaining in F1.
One of many true conundrums in F1’s latest historical past is that of Honda and what precisely the Japanese producer is doing.
After all, there was the golden period with McLaren. Then got here the entire British American Racing, MyEarthDream fiasco which finally noticed the Japanese workforce purchase the Brackley outfit solely to withdraw from the game simply as issues got here good, permitting Ross Brawn’s eponymous workforce to win the titles on the first try with a venture primarily purchased and paid for by Honda.
Then got here the disastrous partnership with McLaren – a shambles that each events nonetheless wrestle to come back to phrases with – adopted by the change to Toro Rosso and subsequently its sister workforce, Pink Bull.
Then, in one more unbelievable twist, simply as Max Verstappen seemed to be heading in the direction of the title, Honda pulled the plug but once more, leaving Pink Bull to arrange its personal energy prepare division, recruiting top-class engineers from its rivals particularly Mercedes, just for the Japanese producer to have a change of coronary heart and choose to proceed partnering the Austrian workforce till 2025.
At which level it might but stay in F1 relying on the brand new engine formulation, the Japanese producer having registered its curiosity in supplying engines from 2026 with the FIA.
Like the remainder of us, Helmut Marko, and presumably many at Honda itself, does not have a clue what’s going on, amidst claims that Honda would possibly proceed merely as an engine provider or ‘do an Audi’ and purchase into an present workforce.
“It is a tense state of affairs that has a historical past,” he tells Auto Motor und Sport. “When Honda introduced its withdrawal two years in the past, we’d have had nothing in any respect within the first section. Honda did not even need to provide the prevailing engine.
“We had been capable of progressively remodel that right into a cooperation as we see it right now,” he provides. “On the identical time, to safeguard the long run, we arrange our personal engine plant.”
Forward of the brand new formulation in 2026, and with Honda having agreed to ‘keep put’ till them, Pink Bull Powertrains has been working with the Japanese big.
“When it got here to deciding who would do what from 2026, issues bought tough,” Marko admits. “It was deliberate that Honda would solely do {the electrical} half, however we did not come to a standard denominator. However let’s have a look at. A call will likely be made quickly.”
When it comes to Honda shopping for into an present workforce, the Austrian guidelines out AlphaTauri.
“When Honda comes again, they want a prime workforce,” he admits. “That may’t be AlphaTauri, particularly if there are not any synergies with us if we have now a distinct engine.
“Once I ask round, each engine producer, from Audi to Renault, desires a second workforce. There’s not a lot left for Honda.”
Whereas Mercedes has dominated the hybrid period, successful 114 (63%) of the 181 races since its introduction, this noticed the German producer declare only one win, whereas Honda claimed 17, bringing its (hybrid) whole to 33. A far cry from the nightmare of 2015.
