’Thank God’ Honda staying with Red Bull - Marko

Dr Helmut Marko is relieved Honda is staying in Formula 1 until the end of 2025.

Officially, it has always been known that Red Bull would keep using the basic Honda power unit architecture even after the Japanese manufacturer’s official withdrawal from F1.

But Marko explains that the original plan was for the all-new Red Bull Powertrains to operate the engines without Honda factory assistance from 2023.

"Thank God there has been a change in thinking," he told the Dutch edition of motorsport.com.

Indeed, Red Bull announced last week that the team would now continue to receive the same "technical support" from Honda in 2023-2025.

"In the original plan, we should have run the engines ourselves from 2023," Marko explained. "Thank God that has been reversed, otherwise it would have become a real problem for us technically, logistically and also in terms of language.

"Now, Honda will continue to arrange everything themselves," the Austrian revealed. "We get the engines sealed and can’t look inside of them either."

Honda’s change of heart could be related to the intense speculation linking Red Bull with a works Porsche deal for 2026.

"The engine arrives from Honda in a box and if something is wrong with it, only Honda people are allowed to work on it," Marko said, playing down the risk of any IP transfer from Honda to Porsche.

As for what the new Red Bull Powertrains operation will now do between now and 2026, Marko answered: "We are already talking about 300 employees and they are all working on the next engine regulations.

"If a new partner comes in for 2026, then we can join forces. They can then use all of the facilities we already have and that is of course a big plus.

"In terms of facilities, we are going for the best of the best."