With Max Verstappen set to land his third consecutive F1 drivers' crown this year, as well as a constructors' title double for Red Bull, there is no hint yet of the partnership's stunning form hitting the buffers.
But there is a certain irony to the fact that Honda's latest golden era in F1 has only come in the wake of it originally announcing back in 2020 that it would be withdrawing from F1 at the end of the following season.
That shock decision could have marked the death knell of Red Bull's ambitions at the time, just as the Honda project appeared to be gathering momentum following its disastrous early hybrid era years with McLaren.
But in a fascinating admission ahead of its home Japanese GP, it has emerged that, rather than quitting being a negative thing for the partnership, Honda's decision was actually one of the elements that have made it so successful since.
It actually triggered an acceleration of its development that helped produce better power units for Red Bull, which will partner with Ford on powertrains from 2026 while Honda returns in a formal capacity with Aston Martin.
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Reflecting on the basis of the products that have helped Red Bull over recent years, Honda's F1 project leader Tetsushi Kakuda explained how the withdrawal announcement prompted a change in the original intention of introducing a new power unit and battery configuration only for 2022.
"In response to the company's decision to withdraw from 2022, we decided to launch the new PU ahead of schedule in 2021," he said.
Even before the Honda announcement was made public in October 2020, Kakuda's team had already consulted Red Bull and AlphaTauri about the potential change of plans for 2021.
Source: Autosport