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Andrew: This is a really interesting story. Honda announced in late 2020 that it would pull out of F1 at the end of 2021.
Before that decision was made, Honda’s F1 department had been planning to introduce an all-new power unit for 2022.
But when the board decided to quit, the engineers asked for permission to bring it forward to 2021 which was, at the time, planned to be the Japanese company’s final year in F1.
The engineers pulled out all the stops and basically revised the entire engine, making it smaller, lower, lighter, more powerful and more efficient.
It was a quite remarkable effort, detailed on Honda’s own website, external and BBC Sport also interviewed Honda F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe about it.
Over time, Honda had a change of heart on quitting. First, they allowed Red Bull to use their engines, taking over their intellectual property, but then in 2022 they negotiated with Red Bull to stay in F1 until the end of the current rule set.
Meanwhile, without a power-unit supplier for 2026, Red Bull set up its own engines division, only for Honda to decide in 2023 to stay in F1 from 2026 under the new rules and do a deal to move to Aston Martin, much to Red Bull’s dismay.
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